T-lawyers pushed back at Parliament House

Hundreds of Lawyers from Telangana marched into the Jantar Mantar street here on Monday to be pushed back from proceeding anywhere close to 300 metres of the Parliament House by the mighty Delhi Armed Forces and para-military forces who rushed in to Parliament Street.

About 1500 Telangana lawyers, with placards in Telugu and English that read ‘Chalo Parliament’, `We want Telangana Bill’ and ‘Jai Telangana’, converged at Jantar Mantar Street on Monday at around 11 a.m. and proceeded to lay siege to Parliament.

Initially, students and the lawyers from various bar Associations in the nine Telangana districts sat on a dharna. After a while they branched out in two directions into the lanes connecting the Parliament Street before a posse of Delhi Armed Forces blocked all entry routes to the Parliament House. Using huge ropes and barricades and armed with water canons, the forces stopped and tried to disperse the agitated lawyers at Transport Bhavan. The police action drew violent protests from the lawyers, which led to tension till late in the evening.

A group of agitators tried to cross the first barricade and tried to run towards Parliament gate No. 5. But the policemen prevented their march any further. However, the protestors said, the Centre should bring in a Bill during the Budget session of Parliament which began on Monday.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha member and former Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh met the Telangana lawyers and demanded that the Srikrishna panel constituted by the Centre come out with its findings in a couple of months and not precipitate the matter any further.