Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region, G. Kishan Reddy, also Telangana BJP President, held a sit-in protest on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in the rain near Tukkuguda near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad, when he was stopped by the police from moving towards Batasingaram where he was to inspect the under-construction two-bedroom houses for the poor on July 20.
Amid high drama the police had obstructed his convoy from proceeding towards the site stating that he does not have the requisite permission for the visit. Mr. Reddy along with party MLA M. Raghunandan Rao, former MLA Ch, Ramachandra Reddy and others sat on the main road even as Rachakonda Police Commissioner D. S. Chauhan tried to persuade him to relent.
“Why did you stop me? I am a Union Minister, do I not have a right to inspect a project site? Is this democracy or a police State? How can you arrest me or my partymen for no reason? We are doing any protest,” he shouted at the police officers. Soon, he was lifted and taken to his official vehicle which was later commandeered by a police official to the BJP party office in Nampally even as scores of other vehicles were in hot pursuit.
Later, speaking to the media in the presence of senior leaders like N. Indrasena Reddy and others at the party office, the Minister, also the Secunderabad MP, questioned Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar for ordering the “indiscriminate and illegal arrests” and house arrests of his party leaders since last night to thwart the proposed visit to the two-bedroom housing construction site.
“Police have treated me as if I was an anti-social element or a criminal. Where is the need for large scale arrests? We have not started any agitation yet, I only wanted to visit the construction site since the work has been abandoned. It only shows the Government is feeling insecure having ignored the interests of the poor in the last nine years,” he said.
Mr. Kishan Reddy accused the BRS Government of failing to live up to its promise to construct two-bedroom housing for the poor and vowed to take up an agitation to expose its hollow claims. “Everyone is aware of the tardy rate of two-bedroom houses construction while those houses built have not been handed over to the identified beneficiaries yet for years. I challenge KCR to build 50 lakh houses for the poor and I will take responsibility to get Centre’s funding,” he said.
The Minister said the “political game” has just begun and the party will highight the Government’s other failures like farm loans waiver, three acres to the Dalits, jobs for the youth and so on. Earlier, BJP leaders like former Ministers Eatala Rajender, D.K.Aruna, former MLC N. Ramchander Rao, vice president G. Manohar Reddy and others were ‘house arrested’ whereas several other leaders were taken into preventive custody including former MP Dr.B. Narasiah Goud, former MLA Ch, Ramachandra Reddy by the police.
The police action against Mr. Kishan Reddy and others led to all round condemnation by the top leaders including former party chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Nizamabad MP D. Aravind, official spokespersons N.V. Subash, Rakesh Reddy and several others.
