E-Paper
KCR’s cabinet meeting ends, no decision on early Telangana elections
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders had earlier said chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will announce the cabinet’s decisions later in the day at a public meeting called Pragathi Nivedana Sabha.
The Telangana cabinet met in Hyderabad on Sunday amid speculation that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao plans to dissolve the assembly and hold early elections in the state but it ended without taking a decision on the issue.
“There will be another cabinet meeting soon to take more decisions,” news agency IANS quoted deputy chief minister Kadiam Srihari as saying when he was asked the cabinet discussed dissolving the assembly.
The hour-long meeting at the Pragati Bhavan, the chief minister’s official residence, decided to construct a community building for backward classes on 75 acres of land in Hyderabad at a cost of ₹70 crore.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders had earlier said KCR, as the chief minister is called popularly, will announce the cabinet’s decisions later in the day at a public meeting called Pragathi Nivedana Sabha (Progress Report Rally) near Hyderabad.
TRS workers carrying pink flags and wearing pink scarves--the party’s colours--gathered at the rally in Ranga Reddy district. The party claims that 25 lakh people will attend the rally, making it the biggest mobilisation of people by any political party in India.
Hundreds of buses, vans, tractor trolleys and cars carrying men and women from 31 Telangana districts were heading to the rally. Officials said 7,200 out of 10,600 buses of state-owned Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) have been deployed to ferry people for the meeting. This is in addition to hundreds of private vehicles.
A thick security blanket has thrown around the 2,000-acre venue with the deployment of 20,000 police personnel.
As traffic jams are likely, commuters to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport have been advised to take alternate routes. In a decision criticised by the opposition parties, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has decided not to collect toll tax from the vehicles plying on Sunday.
Opposition parties have accused KCR of misusing official machinery for the political meeting but Cabinet minister and Rao’s son, K T Rama Rao, has denied the allegations.
(With inputs from IANS)
