Tension in Adilabad as police cane agitators

By Our Staff Reporter

NIZAMABAD, JULY 31. Tension prevailed in Adilabad district headquarters, on Monday afternoon, during the picketing by the Congress and Left activists, as the police resorted to cane charge on three occasions at different places in the town to disperse agitators.

Arrests, lathicharge, rasta roko and heated exchanges between leaders and police marked high drama in the town. Today's agitation saw the Congress, CPI and CPI(M) workers first picketing the Collectorate for three hours and then trying to lay siege to the IB guest house where the Minister for Handlooms and Textiles, Mr. Padala Bhoomanna, was holding a constituency-level review meeting with party leaders. Tempers ran high during the siege of the guest house by the agitators who were demanding the Minister to come out and speak to them.

Though the picketing programme passed off peacefully at the Adilabad Collectorate, trouble broke out near the guest house. First the CPI and CPI(M) workers, numbering over 300, marched to the guest house raising slogans demanding the Minister to come out and meet them. As the slogan-shouting continued, some TDP workers who were attending the meeting inside the guest house, climbed the terrace and allegedly threw footwear and stones at the agitators.

The situation turned ugly when one TDP worker allegedly lifted a flower pot and threw it down. A senior CPI worker, Ramulu, sustained a bleeding head injury when the flower pot fell on him. This led to tension as word spread that the TDP men were resorting to violence against the agitators. Two activists of the POW, Ms. Laxmi and Ms. Vinoda, fell unconscious during the melee. Heavy police posse was present to prevent the agitators from barging in.

Tension escalated as the Congress MLAs, Mr. Indrakaran Reddy (Nirmal), Mr. Gaddenna (Mudhole) and Mr. Diwakar Rao (Luxettipet), along with hundreds of party workers rushed to the guest house to stage a dharna. Earlier, they staged a dharna at the Collectorate and while coming to the guest house held up traffic for sometime. As the Congress workers gathered in large numbers the situation became tense.

The Congress activists also started raising slogans against the Government. They all demanded the Minister to come out and hold discussions with them. The police also prevented the agitators from going near the guest house. At this stage, the Superintendent of Police, Mr. Sandeep Shandilya, rushed to the spot. Mr. Indrakaran Reddy and Mr. Shandilya had a heated argument over the demand to ask the Minister to come out. The Congress leaders alleged that the TDP workers had provoked the agitators who were peacefully protesting.

The Congress leaders then came to the NTR chowk and organised a rasta roko. As the traffic was disrupted for sometime, the police swung into action and caned the protesters. The police chased the agitators for some distance, in which at least 20 party activists received lathi blows. The police then took into custody the three MLAs, the party observer for the district, Mr. Laxma Reddy, senior Congress leaders, Mr. G.V. Srinivas Rao and took them to the One Town police station.

Later, talking to presspersons, the Minister, said he did not know that the MLAs were waiting outside to present a memorandum. However, he took exception to the Congress leaders laying siege to the guest house as it was not in their programme. He maintained that the Government had been forced to hike the power tariff under unavoidable circumstances.

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