Hyderabad, November 30: The State Government today claimed to have arrested TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao only as a preventive measure to tackle law and order situation.
Chief Minister K Rosaiah stated that the Government would have no objections to any agitation or protest if it takes up the Gandhian path of nonviolence.
Speaking to reporters here today, Rosaiah pointed out that the Government remained silent to all the provocative language used by Chandrasekhara Rao during his press conferences and other meeting in the past one week. “We acted only when he started crossing the limits and the situation was going out of control. We would not have arrested him, if he walked the Gandhian path of agitation,’’ he said. Further, the Chief Minister stated that Chandrasekhara Rao’s life was as valuable as any other citizen and the Government has empowered to stall any citizen from such suicidal bids.
Stating that the Congress Party has already announced its stand on separate statehood in 2004 itself, Rosaiah said that formation of a separate State is not a simple issue and it will take time due to procedural delays. “The Congress high command is doing its might to reach concesus with other parties over the issue,’’ he added. However, the Chief Minister refused to comment on the lathicharge by police on students at Osmania University today saying that he had no knowledge about the incident happened inside the University campus.
Earlier, the Chief Minister convened a meeting with Home Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Director General of Police RR Girish Kumar to review the situation.
Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy termed the arrest of Chandrasekhara Rao as a preventive measure.
She urged the TRS cadre and other organisations to revoke their call for Telangana bandh and cooperate with the police to control the law and order situation. She also ordered for a probe into the factors that led the police to lathicharge students in Osmania University campus.
TRS calls for Telangana bandh today
HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) gave a call for bandh in the ten Telangana districts tomorrow in protest against the arrest of its party chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, who was on his way to Siddipet to sit on a fast-untodeath demanding separate Telangana.
Soon after the arrest of Chandrasekhara Rao, the TRS party called for a Telangana bandh tomorrow. Several parties and unions including the CPI (ML-New Democracy), Progressive Democratic Students Union (PDSU) and others extended their support to the bandh.
The Osmania University authorities had indefinitely postponed the examination scheduled to be held in its colleges tomorrow. RTC is unlikely to run its full fleet of buses in the region, officials said.
–Agencies