Telangana thwarts Cong march to Raj Bhavan

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief and former minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah was injured in the shoulder after police roughed up him along with party colleagues while they were trying to march to Raj Bhavan on Saturday.

The Congress leader and activists were protesting against the proposed shifting of a chest hospital to facilitate construction of the state secretariat.

The police arrested all the Congress leaders when they reached Nampally and shifted them to Goshamahal police station. 

“We have got permission from Raj Bhavan to meet the governor and we are supposed to submit a memorandum to the governor. How can the police stop us midway? Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is acting like a Hitler and he should remember that many such leaders have gone down in the history,” said an angry city Congress chief Danam Nagender.

The TPCC chief who was hurt during the struggle with the police sat down on dharna at the police station and at one stage shed tears expressing displeasure over the police attitude.

“The Congress has fulfilled the dreams of crores of Telangana knowing very well that it will fare badly in Andhra Pradesh. This is not the way to treat us,” he said. District units of TPCC will organise dharnas again on Sunday.

Former PCC chief D Srinivas said, “We have been urging the government to look into important issues concerning the problems of the common man rather than focusing on shifting secretariat and building skyscrapers.”