VIJAYAWADA: Taking exception to the behaviour of police officials for obstructing them from paying floral tributes to Jyotirao Phule on his 192nd birth anniversary on April 11 in Vijayawada, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao wrote a letter to Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar requesting him to initiate appropriate action against the erring officials for violation of protocol norms and breach of privilege of a Member of Parliament.
In the letter, Rao said the State government had declared Mahatma Phule’s Jayanti as a State function. “Normally, it is a practice at national and State level that leaders from all parties will be invited to the event. But shockingly, the Vijayawada City Police misbehaved and interrupted us from going to Mahatma Phule’s statue and not allowed us to garland the statue in spite of our repeated requests and we were forcibly shifted to Vijayawada One Town Police Station.
I feel it as a violation of privilege of an MP,” he wrote in the letter. He said Mahatma Phule deserves respect from every section of society and preventing one section of people from respecting him was nothing but denigrating his stature.
Further, not permitting an MP to pay respects to a great leader clearly shows the diabolical standard of the government towards backward classes, he added. “I have waited for three days expecting a corrective action, but in vain. I, therefore, request you to initiate appropriate action,” KVP said.