Opposition Leaders Arrested For Bandh In Medak

Telangana Telugu Desam Party Working President A Revanth Reddy, former Deputy Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh Damodar Raja Narasimha and Telangana Joint Action Committee Chairman M Kodandaram were arrested today during the bandh in Medak for their protests against the alleged manhandling of the Mallanna Sagar agitators by the local police in the Medak district.

Narasimha was taken to the Gajwel police station while Revanth Reddy was shifted to a police station in Daulatabad.

The local police took a few other protestors into custody, too, as they were forcibly shutting down shops and business establishments as part of the bandh, in several parts of the district.

Tensions were felt across the district as pro- and anti-bandh groups took to the streets, and several inconveniences caused. As protestors marched towards Vemulghat, Etigadda, Kishtapur and Erravalli villages, the police cordoned the area from the incoming traffic to prevent congestion. Government transport facilities in the region also took a blow as TSRTC withdrew services from all local bus depots indefinitely.

Although most of the district was facing a total bandh, Gajwel, the home constituency of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, witnessed only a partial shutdown.

Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao claimed that the bandh, organized by the Opposition, did not receive any support from the common people. He branded it as a failure and an embarrassment, and alleged that the Opposition was deliberately creating hurdles to the State's progress.

"The Opposition is trying to instigate and create paranoia among the villagers just to gain political mileage. They aren't doing this for the benefit of the people," Rao alleged.

He claimed that villagers from six out of eight villages in the Mallanna Sagar region had consented to hand their lands over to the government under the Land Acquisition Act 2013. All villages falling in this zone would be rehabilitated and compensated without fail, he promised.