New Delhi: Pro-Telangana fury reached
dangerously close to the doors of Parliament today when around
200 protesting lawyers from the region broke the police cordon
in a major security breach.
Shouting slogans for a separate state, the lawyers under
the aegis of Telangana Lawyers Joint Action Committee (JAC),
first assembled at Jantar Mantar at one end of Parliament
street for the 'Chalo Parliament' demonstration and managed to
reach just 100 metres away from the highly protected building
after hoodwinking the police. The lawyers were later arrested
by police.
The protesting lawyers removed their black coats and
silently walked towards Parliament, less than one km away.
The protestors later broke into small groups and once
they reached close to Parliament, they donned the coats again
and reached the nearby Parliament House annexe shouting
slogans around 3 pm shortly after the end of the first day of
Budget Session of Parliament.
However, police managed to stop the agitators 100
metres away from the Parliament House after Delhi Police and
CRPF swung into action.
Raising slogans like 'Bring Bill for Telangana State',
some protestors even managed to break the cordon again and run
towards Parliament House but were caught by security
personnel.
For almost 90 minutes, the protestors blocked the traffic
on the stretch near Parliament. Security personnel later
herded the protestors to police vans after arresting them.
The Telangana issue also echoed both inside and outside
the Parliament House.
Congress MPs from Telangana region demonstrated in front
of the Parliament shouting slogans in favour of separate
state. Showing placards, they also protested inside the
Central Hall after the contentious Telangana issue did not
find mention in President Pratibha Patil's address.
Amar, Javadekar join pro-Telangana stir
BJP leader Prakash Javadekar
and expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh today shared
the stage for the cause of Telangana statehood and slammed the
UPA government for not heeding to the demand of the people.
The two addressed a rally by pro-Telangana advocates
from Andhra Pradesh here. Singh was seen joining Javadekar
when the latter raised the "Jai-Jai Telangana" slogan from the
dais.
No 'match-fixing' deal to suppress Telangana issue: Rosaiah
Andhra Pradesh Chief
Minister K Rosaiah today mocked at the allegation that he and
Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu had entered into a
'match-fixing' deal to suppress the Telangana issue from being
raised in the State Assembly.
Former minister and senior Congress leader T Jeevan
Reddy, who had of late been vociferous in demanding a separate
state, alleged that Rosaiah and Chandrababu had entered into a
match-fixing deal to stifle the Telangana voice in the ongoing
Budget session of Assembly.
Asked to react to allegation of Jeevan Reddy, the
Chief Minister remarked in his trademark witty style:
"Chandrababu is a young man, like my predecessor Y S
Rajasekhara Reddy. I am unlike him. Any match is played
between people of the same age group. I can neither play
matches nor fix them."
-PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 00:38