HYDERABAD: Even as the Congress leaders were gearing for laying siege on the Vidyut Soudha and Civil Supplies office, PCC chief A Revanth Reddy and scores of other prominent leaders were placed under house arrest, while some of them were also taken into custody.
Besides the heavy presence of police at Revanth Reddy’s residence in Jubilee Hills who was preparing to lead the rally from Necklace Road to Khairtabad, barricades were placed in the lanes leading to his house.
The Congress which has kicked up a campaign against the State and Central governments over power tariff hikes and rising fuel prices respectively on Thursday decided to lay siege to the offices of Vidyut Soudha and Civil Supplies seeking rollback of power tariff hike and demanding the State government to procure paddy from farmers.
Amongst others who were placed under house arrest include former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, AICC National Spokesperson Dasoju Sravan, PCC senior vice president Mallu Ravi, AICC member Bakka Judson.
"CM KCR is getting nightmares of losing power to Congress. One such nightmare kept him awake last night as Congress had planned to protest against a hike in power tariff today. To stop our protest, the TRS government placed us under house arrest even before we brushed our teeth," tweeted Shabbir Ali.
While Mallu Ravi ‘seriously condemned’ this act, he felt that public agitations cannot be suppressed by police.
Former PCC chief and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the government allow peaceful protests questioned stifling of the Opposition voice.
"While the TRS and BJP were engaged in protesting against each other to cover their incompetency, we are trying to highlight how their decisions were impacting the entire population," he emphasised.