Fireworks between TRS, TDP

TDP organises Nalgonda bandh to protest against vandalism by TRS
Rallies, counter-rallies held; Cadres come to blows at many places

• Harish Rao lambasts AP govt for denial of power to TS
• Reiterates power generation will go on at Srisailam plant
• Accuses Naidu of going back on 54% share in power supply
• Naidu denies charges, asks TRS to first set its house in order
• Says no supply from plants whose PPAs not approved by APERC

Nalgonda: Nalgonda district turned into a 'War Zone' with the Telangana TDP and the TRS cadres coming to blows at many places here on Wednesday. TDP had given a bandh call, protesting against vandalism of its office by TRS activists on Tuesday.

There were widespread incidents of stone pelting by TRS and TDP cadres, rallies, dharnas and counter-dharnas, burning of effigies of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and accusations and counter accusations throughout the district on the day.

While Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao reiterated that the government would not stop generation of power from Srisailam and charged Chandrababu Naidu with creating bottlenecks by not providing 54 per cent power share to Telangana, Naidu advised the TRS to first set its house in order and not make baseless allegations against his government.

The AP CM said the AP government was honoring the AP State Reorganisation Act 2014 in letter and spirit and was giving Telangana its share from the power plants whose power purchase agreements had been accepted by the AP Electricity Regulatory Authority. Naidu said his government was not bound to share power from the power plants whose PPAs had been rejected by the apex body.

Harish found fault with Naidu for writing a letter to the Centre against the Telangana government. He said the AP CM should be conferred doctorate for his deceptive politics.

Transport Minister Mahender Reddy said that they were showing restraint because Hyderabad would be the joint capital of both the States for 10 years. “If TDP does not mend its ways, it will become difficult for it to run its office here,” he warned. He was reacting to a statement by T TDP leader A Revanth Reddy who had said that if T TDP hit back, the TRS building would disappear.

In Chityal town on the national highway 65, the agitating TRS and TDP cadres pelted stones at each other. Window panes of the cars in which TDP leaders E Dayakar Rao, R Chandrasekhar Reddy, M Narasimhulu and L Ramana were travelling were damaged. Sensing that the situation might go out of control, police swung into action and took the TDP leaders into preventive custody and shifted them to Ramannapeta police station.

In another incident, Revanth Reddy was heckled from moving towards Nalgonda by the TRS leaders at Kothagudem.

The immediate intervention of police avoided a scuffle between the TDP and TRS leaders. Reddy was arrested and shifted to nearby police station.

Mild tension prevailed in Miryalaguda, Suryapeta and Haliya where the TDP leaders took out protest rallies demanding the arrest of TRS leaders who were involved in the attack on TDP office. TRS workers burnt the effigies of Chandrababu Naidu. TRS leaders alleged that Naidu was depriving Telangana of power by stopping generation at Srisailam Left bank power generation centre.

Senior TTDP leader M Narasimhulu alleged that the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was covering up his failure in providing relief to the distressed farmers by blaming it on the AP government. He alleged that Education Minister G Jagadish Reddy had masterminded the violence that was witnessed at the dharna sites, and demanded his immediate arrest.