Congress leaders placed under house-arrest, permission denied for dharnas

HYDERABAD: Several Congress leaders, including Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy, were confined to house arrest on Monday morning.

The TPCC has called for a dharna at ‘dharna chowk’ on behalf of the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sanghatan to press for the demand of sarpanches of releasing funds. The State Government, however, clamped restrictions and prevented the leaders from stirring out of their houses.

The TPCC applied for a permission for organizing the dharna. However, the police denied permission. In the light of the TPCC’s warning that it would go ahead with the dharna, despite rejection of permission forced the police to prevent the leaders.

TPCC vice-president Mallu Ravi said that the Congress party would support the cause of the sarpanches and called upon the Congress leaders to reach Indira Park to support the sarpanches. He said that the Congress demanded that only the sarpanches be allowed to utilize the funds allocated for gram panchayat. He urged the State Government to release the pending funds.

Heavy police force was deployed at the residence of Revanth Reddy. The leaders who were placed under house arrest included former APCC president V Hanumantha Rao, TPCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud and MLC T Jeevan Reddy.

TPCC Panchayat Raj Sanghatan chairman Siddeshwar said that the Government was afraid of the agitation. The police deployed forces at Gandhi Bhavan also.

Against this background, Revanth Reddy called upon Congress leaders to organize dharnas at all mandal headquarters and district headquarters demanding the immediate release of funds.