The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) on Thursday announced that it will not allow Congress MLAs and leaders into villages during the ensuing local body elections for denying permission to the Chalo Assembly rally.
Addressing a media conference here on Thursday, TJAC chairman M Kodandaram said not just chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the state government, but Congress MLAs too are equally responsible for ‘no permission’ to the stir, which has become necessary as the Congress government has failed to keep its promise on Telangana.
Telangana people would not have to march to Hyderabad had the Congress government kept its promise. Now, they have decided to confront the government when the Assembly is in session and press their demand, he said.
Kodandaram claimed that according to a media report, commissioner of police Anurag Sharma had said permission would not be issued even if the chief minister accorded permission for the march. He demanded that action be taken against the commissioner or the chief minister should quit office.
“We have planned to conduct the Chalo Assembly programme in a peaceful manner, but government is denying permission citing law and order problem. It is unfortunate that entire city is now in the hands of police,” he said.
People of Telangana, if they fail to reach Hyderabad for participating in the Chalo Assembly programme, should express their resentment in various forms like protest demonstrations and rasta-rokos in their respective places, he said. If they are taken into custody, they will protest in the police stations itself, he added.
The TJAC chief, condemning preventive arrests and bind-over cases against Telangana activists, demanded that such oppressive measures be stopped.
“It is totally undemocratic and unconstitutional. People got every right to protest and oppressing them is condemnable,” he said. While binding over T activists, police have not even taken the permission of the magistrate concerned, which is mandatory, he said.
Whatever happens during the ‘Chalo Assembly’ on Friday, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy should own up responsibility. TRS leader Nayani Narasimha Reddy and others spoke.