Telangana students attack minister's house

A group of students of the Kakatiya University attacked the house of Minister for Information and Technology Ponnala Lakshmaiah at Warangal, about 150 km from here.
The protestors, demanding the minister's resignation to press for a separate state, barged into the house and ransacked the furniture. They also damaged the portrait of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to protest the delay in carving out Telangana.

The minister and his family members were not present when the attack took place. Raising slogans of "Jai Telangana", the students first laid siege to the minister's house and later barged in. A few policemen deployed there could not stop the protestors. The attacking students were later arrested.

The security at the minister's residence was lowered recently as police believed that the Telangana movement has weakened. Following the incident, the police again beefed up security at the residences of all ministers and legislators in the Telangana region, especially in Warangal district.

Meanwhile, the students' Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Osmania University has asked all public representatives of the region to resign immediately to press for a separate state. The JAC also decided to take out a rally Thursday.

The students' outfit condemned ministers from Telangana for resuming their duties without extracting a clear assurance from the Congress leadership. As many as 101 legislators and 15 MPs of the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other parties submitted their resignations in July to put pressure on the central government.

Andhra Pradesh assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar Reddy later rejected resignations of all the legislators while Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has not yet taken a decision on the resignations of MPs.

Though Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the movement, has asked all legislators to submit their resignations again, the legislators of both the ruling Congress and the opposition TDP have ignored the call.