Police foil BJP, CPI march to Telangana Assembly

Hyderabad, Oct 13 Tension gripped the area around Telangana Assembly on Tuesday as leaders and workers of BJP, CPI and unemployed youth organization tried to march towards the building in support of their demands.

Police detained several protestors at various places as they were heading towards the Assembly to lay siege to the building in response to the call given by their respective organisations.

The protests were held as the Assembly began a day-long special session to pass Bills to amend Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Act and other legislation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for 'chalo assembly' to protest against the amendments to GHMC Act. The Communist Party of India (CPI) had given a separate call for protest to demand construction of two bed-room houses for the poor.

Demanding the government to issue job notification, unemployed youth organization had also called for the protest.

Carrying placards and their respective party flags, protestors tried to march towards Assembly but were stopped by the police. The security personnel were seen chasing few protestors and bodily lifting them to the waiting police vehicles. They were shifted to different police stations.

BJP workers raised slogans of "CM down down". They demanded delimitation of GHMC divisions. A protestor said some divisions had 60,000 voters while some others have only 25,000 voters.

Some BJP leaders alleged that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government is maligning their party.

Workers of CPI were also arrested by the police as they were trying to advance towards Assembly. They alleged that the government failed to build double bed-room houses as per its promise.

Police placed CPI leaders K. Narayana and Chada Venkat Reddy under house arrest to foil the protest.

Tight security arrangements were made around Assembly building. Policemen were deployed in large numbers on all roads leading towards the Legislature Complex.

( With inputs from IANS )