Hyderabad, January 10: TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu was arrested on Tuesday while leading a big rally, protesting against the proposed hike of power tariff and the cuts imposed on all sectors.
Holding a hurricane lantern, Chandrababu led the rally, walking from the NTR Trust Bhavan, his party’s head quarters, to the Vidyut Saudha, headquarters of the Electricity Department, in Somajiguda.
Police however erected barricades at the Nagarjuna circle on Road No. 3 of Banjara Hills and stopped the protesters. There was tension as the police and TDP workers pushed and jostled each other. Police arrested Chandrababu Naidu and several of his party leaders including Yerrabelli Dayakara Rao, K Yerrannaidu, Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu, Mandava Venkateswara Rao and others and have taken them to the Banjara Hills police station.
Telangana Electricity Employees JAC activists protested against Naidu and raised the slogan ‘Naidu Go Back.’.
Speaking to the media before being arrested, Naidsu has alleged that the government had totally failed to provide quality power to the people in general and the farming community in particular. He said the government which promised 9 hours of free power to farmers, was not even supplying power for 7 hours. He said the Congress government had not added even 1000 mw during the past eight years of its rule. Stating that the government himself owed Rs. 20,000 crores to the power companies, Naidu said this was the reason why the power system had totally broken down in the state.
He said while his government had set apart 6 percent of the budget to the power companies, the Congress government had reduced it to 4 percent.
—SOurce:AH