Hyderabad: As many as 1,720 people, including
leaders and workers of various political parties, were today
taken into preventive custody when they held protests and
observed bandh in Telangana region demanding postponement of
preliminary recruitment test for Group-I service officers.
Police also registered 110 cases against the protesters,
including the pro-Telangana activists, who defied prohibitory
orders imposed around the exam centres following the shutdown
call given by the Osmania University Students Joint Action
Committee (OUJAC) and TRS, State Director General of Police K
Aravinda Rao said.
Pro-Telangana activists who indulged in violence at the
Osmania University (OU) campus barged into the exam centre and
allegedly snatched answer-sheets and question papers from
candidates and burnt them even as police intervened and took
them into preventive custody.
Protesting the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission`s
move to go ahead with the Group-I services exam, Congress
leaders too held protests in OU campus with participation from
party MPs -- Madhu Yashki Goud, G Sukhender Reddy, M
Jagannath, K Rajagopal Reddy and G Vivek while Ponnam
Prabhakar and S Rajaiah took part in the protests in their
respective constituencies of Karimnagar and Warangal.
The leaders were taken into preventive arrests and later
released on bail, police said.
Nearly 51 buses were damaged in different districts
across Telangana, when agitators pelted stones on them in
Medak district, at Godavarikhani in Karimnagar district, at
Hayathnagar and Saroornagar in Hyderabad and at Choutuppal in
Nalgonda district.
TRS leader Harish Rao was taken into preventive custody
in Medak district, while workers of TRS and BJP were arrested
as preventive measure, as they staged a blockade in
Miryalaguda town.
Elaborate security arrangements were made for smooth
conduct of the exams and prohibitory orders were in place near
the 445 exam centres across the state. The situation in the
state is peaceful and the bandh passed off peacefully without
any major incidents, Rao said.
The OUJAC and Telangana JAC had demanded that the state
government postpone the Group-I examinations demanding that
42 per cent seats be reserved for candidates from their
region.
Meanwhile, APPSC chairman Venkatarami Reddy said that they would hold a meeting of Commission officials shortly
and a decision would be taken on whether to conduct
re-examination at one of the exam centres at OU campus where
violence was reported.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan termed the OU
incident as "unfortunate" and said exams at the remaining 127
centres across Hyderabad was conducted peacefully.
PTI
