Several Telangana opposition leaders and activists in Wyra, Khammam, Sathupalli and Bhadrachalam were placed under house arrest or preventively detained ahead of BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s (KTR) tour of the erstwhile Khammam district on Saturday, September 30. Police officials informed local leaders that this was done to prevent them from staging a protest. KTR, along with state Transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Roads and Buildings minister Vemula Prashant Reddy were touring the constituencies.
Telangana Rythu Sangham district secretary Bonthu Rambabu and five other farmers’ rights activists were picked up by police officials and detained while they arrived at the foundation stone laying function of an oil palm factory at Anjanapuram situated in Konijarlamandal.
“We had planned a meeting with KTR and Wyra MLA from BRS Lavudya Ramulu Nayak. He asked us to come to the meeting but upon reaching we were taken to a police station and detained for a few hours,” said Rambabu. Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretary B Veerabhadram was initially placed under house arrest and then taken by two police officials to the station. “We were told that if we went to meet KTR, a crowd could gather, leading to some form of protest,” he said.
Both the leaders had plans to meet KTR to discuss issues pertaining to farmers. Rambabu told TNM that they wanted to bring up the issue of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Palm Oil and ask for water to be released from Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal. CP(I)M leaders also wanted to bring up the issue of compensation for red chilli farmers.
Around 15 Congress leaders were preventively detained in Tirumalayapalem mandal of Khammam as well. “We had no plans to stage a protest. Police officials wished to detain us the previous night itself but finally picked us up early in the morning at 4am,” said Congress leader Mandadi Ijrail. A woman Congress leader was among those who were detained before they were all finally released at 12 pm.
According to local reports, leaders of CPI, CP(I)M, Congress and TDP were also detained or placed under house arrest in Bhadrachalam.
Wyra town president and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Kilaru Surender was detained along with four others for attempting to protest against the arrest of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
“The house arrest was carried out solely on suspicion that there would be protest demonstrations. KTR’s visit shouldn’t result in activists and leaders of opposition parties being barred from entering an event,” said CPI(M) district secretary Nunna Nageswara Rao.