Hyderabad, July 18: The standoff between the delegation led by Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu and the Maharashtra government continues in Nanded, with the TDP chief refusing to accept bail and insisting on being allowed to visit the site of the Babli Irrigation Project.
The TDP chief, along with 74 legislators was arrested by Maharashtra police in Nanded on Friday and shifted to an IIT campus where they were lodged for the night.
According to media reports, the Maharashtra government had tried to obtain the signatures of the delegation leaders on blank bond papers.
When this attempt was met with failure, a local District Magistrate arrived at the IIT campus. He is reported to have asked the TDP-led delegation to return to Andhra Pradesh but was met with refusal and his offer of bail was rejected.
Mr Naidu insisted that he and the other members of the delegation would leave for Andhra Pradesh only after inspecting the site of the controversial Irrigation Project. He reiterated that the TDP would continue its fight to stop work on the illegal project.
Meanwhile, a large number of people from Nizamabad and Adilabad districts in Andhra Pradesh, led by TDP leaders converged on the Andhra-Maharashtra border near Nanded and staged protests.
The protestors claimed that the TDP delegation was forced to spend the night in the ‘most horrifying conditions.’ The protestors cited members of the delegation as saying that the room in which the TDP members were lodged in was filled with mosquitoes and there was no power supply.
According to information coming in, the room has only one toilet and is without running water. Members of the delegation claim that they were not even allowed to purchase drinking water.
A member of the delegation told sources in the TDP that they were stopped by the Maharashtra police from coming out of the room on Saturday morning to purchase water. It is believed that senior TDP leader Nama Nageshwar Rao fell down during the scuffle between the Maharashtra police and the TDP leaders.
Cases under Sections 151 CrPC and Sections 135, 143 and 188 IPC have been booked against the delegation members.
———INN