Police foil TDP's Chalo Secretariat rally, arrest MLAs

Several MLAs and MLCs of the Telugu Desam Party were arrested by the City Police when they staged dharna over the power crisis issue at Indira Park here on Wednesday.

The TDP legislators and activists led by Errabelli Dayakar Rao staged a sit-in protest at Indira Park demanding that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy give an assurance to take all-party delegation to the Centre over the energy crisis. He threatened that if the Chief Minister fails to give an assurance by 2 pm, then the TDP MLAs would organise Chalo Secretariat protest.

Having failed to get any word of assurance from the government, the TDP legislators and workers started marching towards the Secretariat. However, they were prevented by the police which later took them into custody and shifted to Musheerabad Police Station.

Earlier, talking to reporters, Errabelli said that the State Government has failed to fulfill the promise of giving seven hours of power supply to the farmers. He said the government was not even announcing any financial package or relief for the farmers in the State. He alleged that the power generation and distribution systems were originally damaged during the regime of YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Kiran Kumar Reddy spoiled the system further.

Senior TDP leaders including P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Motkupalli Narasimulu, Mahender Reddy, T Srinivas Yadav and other MLAs and MLC's participated the Dharna.