Agitators turn the heat on Seemandhra staff

The 15th day of the indefinite ‘Sakala Janula Samme’ has witnessed cracks deepening between the two regions of the state in turmoil. Agitators smashed glass panes of six buses belonging to the APSRTC parked near the NGOs colony, in a bid to stop employees being transported to the secretariat. Police resorted to cane charge and escorted the Seemandhra employees to the secretariat.

Vijayawada MP and industrialist Lagadapati Rajagopal was arrested and later released from the Jubilee Hills police station, for entering the Transport Commissioner’s office and meeting the Assistant Commissioner, a native of coastal town of Vijayawada, who was manhandled by Telangana agitators on Tuesday.

The agitators, including advocates and Osmania University students, laid seize to the police station and warned of physical attack on the coastal MP. The police later used a towing vehicle as a shield to escort a petrified Lagadapati home.

Congress party workers have  called for a bandh in Vijayawada Wednesday, denouncing arrest of Lagadapati. Nizamabad MP Madhu Yashki (Congress), Siddipet MLA Harish Rao (TRS) and Khiaratabad MLA Vishnuvardhan Reddy (Congress) were also taken into custody by police for barging into the RTA office after receiving information of Lagadapati’s presence there. Harish Rao and TNGO President Swamy Goud fainted as fist fights ensued when police tried to stop the agitators from entering the office complex.