HYDERABAD: A group of activists of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Vidyarthi Vibhagam (TRSV), who planned to hold a protest at Parade Ground in the city where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting, were taken into preventive custody on Sunday, police said.
Activists of TRSV, the student wing of the TRS, holding placards and raising slogans like "Go Back Modi" staged a protest against the BJP at the Arts College on the campus of Osmania University and took out a procession.
As the protesters tried to go towards the Parade Ground to hold a protest, police intervened and foiled their attempts and 20 of them were taken into preventive custody, a police official said.
The activists also carried placards demanding the release and withdrawal of cases against those arrested during the protests against the 'Agnipath' recruitment system for the armed forces and also over the Centre's decision for shelving the Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR) project in Hyderabad.
Modi is in the city, attending the BJP's two-day National Executive Committee meeting that began on Saturday and will be addressing a public meeting titled as 'Vijay Sankalpa Sabha' at Parade Ground in Secunderabad on Sunday evening.
The Hyderabad Police is also making massive arrangements for the public meeting, which is likely to witness the attendance of lakhs of people.
Police earlier said there will be elaborate measures in place to deal with any spontaneous protests.
About 3,000 police personnel from Hyderabad city and other districts, besides TSSP (Telangana state special police) would be on duty.
The elite police personnel of Telangana, the Greyhounds and Octopus, would also be deployed.
Deployment of snipers, anti-sabotage checks, roof-top watch, mufti parties, route map, trial runs and multi-layer security arrangements were being made in the city limits, police had said.
The TRS government in Telangana has become "a symbol of dynastic and corrupt politics", the BJP said in a statement adopted at its national executive meeting here on Sunday and expressed its anguish at the "difficulties" being faced by the people of the state.
BJP national vice-president D K Aruna moved the statement on the state of affairs in Telangana which was passed unanimously by the party's national executive.
Citing the statement, Union minister Piyush Goyal said at a press conference that problems of the people of Telangana are continuously rising, from both economic and social perspectives, and the national executive expressed its anguish over it.
Telangana was formed after the BJP struggled for it and the youth of the state made sacrifices, but in "the last eight years, the TRS government completely dashed the expectations of the people," Goyal said, adding it "has become a symbol of dynastic and corrupt politics."
Addressing the press conference, Union Minister MP from Telangana G Kishen Reddy alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has not gone to the state secretariat for eight years and only meets AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.
"Owaisi has even access to the bedroom of KCR. They both are looting the state together," Reddy said.
Rao is commonly called KCR.