KARIMNAGAR: A review meeting held here on Sunday to discuss the implementation of welfare schemes and development works in the erstwhile Karimnagar district turned chaotic when Huzurabad BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy clashed with Jagtial legislator M Sanjay Kumar.
Initially, the two were engaged in a heated argument, but the situation quickly escalated when they began pushing each other. Kaushik Reddy refused to calm down despite being pacified by his own party MLA Gangula Kamalakar, as well as by legislators from the ruling Congress. Police personnel intervened and forcibly removed him from the Collectorate meeting hall.
The review meeting was being conducted by Irrigation and district-in-charge Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, in the presence of his Cabinet colleagues D Sridhar Babu and Ponnam Prabhakar.
The trouble began when Kaushik Reddy started arguing as soon as Sanjay Kumar, who had joined the Congress a few months earlier, rose to speak. The Huzurabad MLA asked his Jagtial counterpart on behalf of which party he was attending the meeting.
As the two became embroiled in a heated argument, Congress MLAs, along with Kamalakar, who represents the Karimnagar segment in the Assembly, attempted to pacify Kaushik, but he refused to relent. This led to the police forcibly removing him from the meeting venue.
Later, speaking to the media, Kaushik warned government officials and the police that the BRS would “retain power within the next three years and take revenge against them.”
Earlier, during the review meeting, Uttam stated that the government would provide Rs 12,000 per acre per year to farmers.
The minister, however, clarified that the benefits of the farmers’ insurance scheme would not be extended to “roads, real estate sites, and lands that are not suitable for cultivation.”
He also announced that, as part of the Indiramma Atmiya Bharosa scheme, agricultural labourers would receive Rs 12,000 assistance per year. Beneficiaries must have worked for at least 20 days during the previous year under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.