Police foil ‘Telangana Kadam Yatra’

Kodand, Srinivas Goud and T supporters arrested, let off

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed for a few hours at Chandanagar when police cracked down on the three-day ‘Telangana Kadam Yatra’ planned from Chandanagar to temple town of Yadagirigutta.

The police took TJAC leaders Prof Kodandaram, V Srinivas Goud and hundreds of Telangana supporters, including political activists and journalists, into custody. However, they were later let off.

Trouble began early in the morning when the police descended in large numbers at Gandhi statue on the National Highway, the starting point of the yatra, near Chandanagar.

Telangana supporters were forcibly evicted from the place. Even the members of the Telangana Journalists Forum including Ranga Reddy president Shekhar Sagar were not spared.

This led to heated arguments between both the groups after which journalists staged a sit-in protest. Telangana JAC leaders Kodandaram and V Srinivas Goud, who came to flag off the yatra, were also arrested and shifted to Dundigal police station, and others were kept in Chandanagar and few other police stations in Cyberabad limits.

On learning about the news, Telangana supporters in large numbers staged demonstrations at police stations. Although the organisers of the yatra, the Greater Hyderabad JAC and the Serilingampally JAC sought permission for the rally four days ago, police denied the permission and communicated the same to them late evening on Friday.

Prof Kodandaram flayed the police and the government for not allowing a peaceful rally that was planned to impress upon the Centre to expedite the Telangana process. Unperturbed by the developments in the day, a few Telangana supporters carried on with the padayatra, which reached Uppal by the evening.