Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Revanth Reddy has been placed under house arrest again on Friday.
Reddy was about to leave for Bhupalapally to visit the farmers. It has been alleged that police have rounded up his house. Within a week’s time, police have placed him under house arrest for the second time.
On Monday, Reddy was arrested when he was leaving for Erravalli village to lead a protest at the farmhouse of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
As soon as the TPCC chief had emerged from his house, police officers stopped him. They forcibly took him to a police vehicle, leading to strong protest from Congress workers who had gathered there.
Revanth Reddy, who is also a Member of Parliament, was placed under house arrest early Monday. A large number of policemen were deployed around Revanth Reddy’s house in view of the call given by him to organize Rachabanda programme over what he calls the failure of the state and central governments in procuring paddy from farmers.
Several Congress leaders were either placed under house arrest or were detained while they were heading to Erravalli in Siddipet district from various parts of the state.
Earlier, Revanth Reddy vowed to go ahead with the protest despite restrictions imposed by the police. “Is Erravalli a prohibited area? Why are we being prevented from going to that village?” the Congress leader asked. He claimed that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was afraid of their visit.
Revanth Reddy slams both TRS, BJP over paddy procurement issue
The TPCC chief slammed both the TRS and BJP over the issue of paddy procurement. He said both the parties have a secret understanding to mislead the farmers.
Revanth Reddy had on Sunday released photographs of paddy cultivated at the chief minister’s farmhouse. “On one hand the chief minister is saying that the government will not procure paddy from farmers while on the other he has taken up paddy cultivation over 150 acres at his farmhouse,” the Congress leader said.
After the incident on Monday, many Congress leaders including V Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Shabbir Ali, Madhu Yashki had asked KCR the reason behind stopping the leaders from visiting the village.
TRS, BJP indulge in ‘paddy war’
Paddy procurement emerged as a contentious issue between the TRS government and the BJP.
KCR held a dharna in November along with his ministers, MLAs and others on the paddy procurement issue. He protested against the NDA government’s alleged unhelpful stance over paddy procurement.
The TRS government had demanded that the Centre convey the annual target for paddy procurement from Telangana.
In December, TRS again held protests against the NDA government’s alleged anti-farmer policies, including paddy procurement. Party MPs, who protested over the issue inside the House during the winter session of the Parliament, had later boycotted the remainder of the session.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders said that the Centre would procure paddy from Telangana as per the agreements between the state government and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and that the state government had given a written commitment that it will not deliver parboiled rice to the FCI in future.
With inputs from agencies