Telangana protest reaches CM’s office, strike continues

Traffic came to a halt in front of Vidyut Soudha in the busy Khairatabad area as activists held a demonstration demanding seven-hour uninterrupted power supply to Telangana farmers. Minister for Infrastructure K Venkat Reddy, TRS floor leader in the Assembly E Rajender and legislator and TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K T Rama Rao, who joined the protest, were taken away by the police when tension mounted in the area. They were taken to the Banjara Hills Police Station, but are likely to be released later in the evening.

The State Secretariat resounded to traditional Telangana songs as the protest for a separate Telangana reached the doorstep of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s office. The striking employees, adopting a novel approach, sang traditional Telangana folk songs while others danced to the tune. A group of women employees organized ‘Bathukamma,’ the traditional dance marking the advent of spring festival in front of ‘C’ block, which houses the Chief Minister’s Office.

Several leaders including Venkata Reddy, Congress MPs Madhu Yaskhi, S Rajaiah and Ponnam Prabhakar, K T Rama Rao and Rajender reached the Secretariat to express solidarity with the striking employees. They demanded of the government that no action should be taken against the employees, whose indefinite strike entered the 14^th day on Monday. An official of the Transport Department was roughed up by Telangana activists for issuing show-cause notices to striking employees. Tension prevailed at the Transport Commissioner’s office as Congress and TRS leaders joined the activists and refused to leave the premises till the notices were withdrawn. The leaders forced the official to sign an order withdrawing the show cause notices.

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