In a pre-emptive move, the police kept Revanth Reddy under house arrest as he was preparing to go to Hyderabad's Dharna Chowk for an agitation.
Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy. (Twitter)
In a pre-emptive move, the police kept Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy under house arrest on Monday, 2 January, as he was preparing to go to Dharna Chowk in Hyderabad to take part in an agitation to condemn the government for allegedly crippling panchayats financially.
The Congress gave the call for agitation under the banner of the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sanghatan to apparently expose the discrimination of the state government towards panchayats in the allotment of funds.
As the police began arresting Congress workers at their homes, the party’s leaders were up in arms against the government.
Tensions built up at several places as heated arguments took place between the police and the party workers.
In the morning itself, policemen were deployed in large numbers at the residence of Revanth Reddy.
When he tried to come out, he was arrested and taken to the Bolarum police station.
Before the police arrested him, Revanth Reddy entered into an argument with them for trying to curtail his movements.
He insisted on being informed why he was being arrested and asked the police how they could detain him when he was on his way to Dharna Chowk to take part in a protest.
He also said he did not need police permission to come out of his home and take part in a dharna as it was his democratic right.
The police storming into our houses like KCR's private army and lifting is a proof of the rowdy state in Telangana which we have fought for with a lot of aspirations. #HitlerKCR pic.twitter.com/7mXTklMMJS
— Revanth Reddy (@revanth_anumula) January 2, 2023
Revanth Reddy demanded to know why his visitors were rounded up, and suggested that the police, instead of cracking down on Congress workers, register cases against those in the state government who had allegedly diverted ₹35,000 crore that the Centre had sent to gram panchayats.
The police also arrested Congress leader Vijaya Reddy when she tried to meet Revanth Reddy at his residence.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at Gandhi Bhavan when the police stopped Congress workers from stepping out of the premises.
A few workers tried to scale the gates and jump onto the main road to go to Dharna Chowk, but the police foiled their attempts.
In the process, heated arguments took place between the police and the party workers.
The police also detained the leaders who tried to reach Hyderabad from various districts.
MLC Jeevan Reddy was rounded up in Jagtial and Congress spokesperson Sudheer Reddy was arrested at Gandhi Bhavan.
Meanwhile former MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded the unconditional release of all the Congress workers arrested by the police. He also demanded the release of sarpanches who were detained.
The Telangana government was diverting Central funds meant for gram panchayats, and on top of it, it was threatening officials with action if they did not implement development works in villages, he added.
The Congress leaders alleged that the state government had not released funds for the last eight months, and, as a result, the sarpanches were not able to pay for diesel for tractors and power bills.
They alleged that though the Centre released funds in two instalments last week, the state government kept them on hold.
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