Uttam condemns TRS Govt for not allowing protests

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has accused the TRS Government of suppressing all kinds of protests against its wrong policies and decisions.

"TRS Government is completely suppressing people's right to express their demand or even register their protest against the wrong policies, decisions and actions. The Constitution of India has guaranteed Freedom of Speech to all its citizens. But Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao is apparently running a dictatorial form of government while disallowing all kind of protest against his government," Uttam Kumar Reddy said while condemning the arrest of former MP Ponnam Prabhakar in Karimnagar on Tuesday. He said Ponnam was on hunger strike demanding establishment of a medical college in Karimnagar as promised by the Chief Minister three years ago. Instead of holding talks and giving a positive assurance, police stormed the hunger strike camp and took the Congress leader and other activists into custody.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Chief Minister must apologise for not fulfilling the promise of establishing a medical college in Karimnagar. Instead of having an apologetic attitude for its failures, TRS Government is aggressively curbing all kinds of protest by the opposition parties and people.

The TPCC Chief said that the TRS Government had adopted a similar approach when the Congress party wanted to hold 'Chalo Sircilla' agitation. He said several Dalits, BCs and other innocent persons were subjected to third degree torture by the Sircilla police. However, the government neither responded to the Congress party's demand for action against the guilty cops, nor it permitted the main opposition party to hold protest. He said even former Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar, a prominent Dalit and woman leader of the country, was not allowed to address a public meeting.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that right from shifting of Dharna Chowk to the arrest of Ponnam Prabhakar, TRS Government had proved time and again that it was not a democratic regime. "KCR does not come out of Pragathi Bhavan and is completely inaccessible to people. His cabinet ministers and ruling party legislators are not willing to hear people's grievances. Common people are being subjected to brutal torture and being implicated in false cases when they are holding protest on their own as it happened in the cases of protest by chilli farmers in Khammam and agitation by local villagers in Nerella village. Further, the government is simply not permitting the opposition parties to organise any kind of protest anywhere in the State. This is completely against the spirit of democracy," he said.

The TPCC chief said that the Chief Minister would fail in all its attempts to suppress the voice of common people who would teach TRS a fitting lesson in next elections.