Hyderabad, June 13 (Hydnow): Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday asked DGP Mahender Reddy and Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar whether the Covid-19 restrictions were applicable only for opposition parties. Accusing the Telangana Police of acting in a partisan manner, he announced that the Congress party would take up the issue with the Governor and the Centre besides approaching the High Court.
The TPCC Chief, along with TPCC Vice President & ex–MP Dr. Mallu Ravi, former Leader of Opposition in Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Sangareddy MLA Jagga Reddy and other leaders, was addressing a press conference at his residence in Banjara Hills.
Reddy has strongly condemned the Telangana Police for placing the several Congress leaders under house arrest and arresting many other leaders from across the State. He asked the DGP to clarify as to why only opposition leaders were denied permission to visit the irrigation projects on Godavari River. He said hundreds of Congress workers were arrested across the Telangana State in the morning.
The TPCC chief alleged that a few police officials were acting at the behest of the ruling TRS party. He said those officials have transformed themselves from ‘IPS’ to ‘KPS’ (Kalvakuntala Private Sainyam). He said while nearly 90-95% officials have been working honestly, a few officials have been acting as agents of TRS and misusing their position to suppress the voice of Congress leaders.
Similarly, Reddy said that he, along with MLA Jagga Reddy and other leaders, was arrested when they tried to visit Manjeera Dam on June 4 despite the fact that no restrictions of Covid-19 were violated. He said a similar approach was adopted today and all Congress leaders were either arrested or placed under house arrest to prevent their visit to projects on Godavari River. He alleged that the TRS Government was wasting lakhs of crores of public money in the name of irrigation projects only to get 8% commission/kickbacks. He said that the voice of the Congress party was being suppressed so as to prevent it from exposing the huge corruption and irregularities.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the police was enforcing the Covid-19 norms only on Congress leaders while ignoring blatant violations of rules by the ruling party leaders. He pointed out that thousands of people took part in the inauguration of the Konda Pochamma Project on May 29. He said no one, including the Chief Minister, was wearing a mask and no physical distancing rules were violated. He said that the police did not act when the Chief Minister gathered people in large numbers and converted the event into a political meeting. If all political meetings are bannned, then why Finance Minister Harish Rao was permitted to conduct an event at Ranga Naik Sagar project where he criticised the Congress party in his speech. Likewise, Minister KTR conducted a meeting on June 10 with hundreds of people in Siricilla during the lockdown period. He asked as to why those events were not being stopped by the State Police. He said Minister Jagadish Reddy was holding on almost every day. He asked whether the same law does not apply to TRS leaders.
The TPCC Chief informed that he has written an open letter to the DGP seeking an explanation on the arrest of Congress leaders. However, he said that the DGP did not give any reply. He said Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar has been contending that the Union Home Minister has issued a notification restricting all kinds of gatherings, including political meetings. In such a scenario, he asked why the notification was not being applied to the Chief Minister, ministers and other TRS leaders.
Reddy said that Congress Legislature Party leader Bhatti Vikramarka and other MLAs and other leaders were placed under house arrest when they wanted to submit a memorandum against the high electricity bills served to consumers this month. He said that the Telangana Police was setting a bad precedent and their behaviour was a threat to democracy in Telangana.
Meanwhile, Shabbir Ali urged Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan to invoke Section -8 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act and summon DGP and other officials seeking explanation on Covid-19 situation. He said it was strange that the State Government was placing restrictions even on the movement of the Governor and she was being prevented from visiting Gandhi Hospital and other places.
TPCC Vice President Mallu Ravi demanded that the State Government take measures to protect the journalists from getting infected from Coronavirus. He also said that police must act only as per law and not on the directions of ruling party.
MLA Jagga Reddy invited CM KCR to have a joint inspection to check how people were suffering due to lack of water. (Hydnow)