E-Paper
Telangana Cong protest against power tariff hike
Thousands of the Congress workers led by Pradesh Congress Committee president and parliamentarian A Revanth Reddy took out a rally from Necklace Road on the banks of Hussain Sagar to the Vidyut Soudha to stage a sit-in dharna in protest against the power tariff hike.
Hyderabad
Telangana Congress leaders on Thursday made an attempt to lay siege to Vidyut Soudha, the headquarters of the state electricity department, demanding roll back of the recent hike in power tariff.
Thousands of the Congress workers led by Pradesh Congress Committee president and parliamentarian A Revanth Reddy took out a rally from Necklace Road on the banks of Hussain Sagar to the Vidyut Soudha to stage a sit-in dharna in protest against the power tariff hike.
However, the police thwarted their attempt to approach the electricity department office by putting up barricades at Khairatabad. Tension prevailed for quite some time, as the Congress workers tried to break the barricades and surge towards the electricity office.
The PCC chief and some other senior leaders including MLA D Sridhar Babu and campaign committee chairman Madhu Yashki, jumped over the barricades and rushed towards Vidyut Soudha. When, the police prevented them from moving further, they squatted on the road and raised protests.
Later, senior police officials allowed a delegation of the Congress leaders to go into the Vidyut Soudha and submit a memorandum to Telangana power transmission corporation chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao, demanding that the power tariff hike be withdrawn.
Earlier in the morning, the police kept Revanth Reddy, Congress legislature party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, former MP Mallu Ravui, former minister Mohd Shabbir Ali and several others under house arrest in their respective residences.
A large number of policemen were deployed at the residence of Revanth Reddy in Jubilee Hills to prevent him from leading the planned protest. “The chief minister is scared, which is evident from the way more police forces were deployed at my residence than at his residence Pragati Bhavan,” he told reporters.
Accusing the TRS government of adopting double standards, Reddy wondered why the police who had allowed the TRS cadres to stage dharnas and national highway blockades on paddy procurement issue, were obstructing the Congress leaders who wanted to protest against power tariff hike.
He alleged that both the Central and the state governments were making the lives of the people miserable by increasing the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and electricity tariff.
Later, the police gave permission to the Congress leaders to stage a protest demonstration at Necklace Road and not at Vidyut Soudha. But the Congress cadres vowed to lay siege to the electricity department office.
Senior leader and former MP V Hanumantha Rao staged the protest at the electricity department office in Amberpet. He along with his supporters went there to submit a memorandum. Since no official was available, they sat at the office to lodge their protest.
