HYDERABAD: The first anniversary of the Million March, to be organised by Telangana activists on Saturday, will be a low-key affair with just a small gathering on the Tank Bund here being planned.
When the Telangana movement was at its peak, various organisations called for a march by a million people on the state capital on March 10, 2011 in support of their demand for a separate state and the entire city was under a curfew on that day. Yet, hundreds of people managed to reach the Tank Bund and, in a frenzy, vandalised the statues of eminent personalities that lined the road.
Now, exactly a year later, the first anniversary, falling on March 10 this month, will be a low-key affair with the intensity and vehemence of the movement dissipating and students being busy with their annual examinations and entrance tests. As of now, no school in the region has declared a holiday on March 10. This had spared the police of the need to impose traffic curbs.
Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman M Kodandaram said that last year it was a Million March and this time it would just be programme to remembering it. “We will release a book on Million March. It will be followed by a public meeting,” he said and cited examinations and by-elections as the reasons for the low-key event.
Of the total number of 33 statues on the Tank Bund, 12 were damaged during the Million March. These statues were of Sri Krishnadevaraya, Yerrapragada, Annamacharya, Siddhendra Yogi, Brahma Naidu, Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu, Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu, Tripuraneni Ramswamy Chowdary, Bellari Raghava, Sir Arthur Cotton and Gurajada Appa Rao. Except Raghava’s, the 11 statues were dumped in Hussainsagar lake.