Ministers, MPs, and MLAs on Friday joined issue with the Telangana Students' JAC condemning the police excesses and censor on the media and demanded that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy immediately order the lifting of curbs on the media which they described as one of the pillars of the democracy besides appealing to the Chief Minister to order probe into the allegations of police firing on Osmania University students on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat on Friday, G Sukender Reddy, MP from Nalgonda, said that 8 Ministers, 10 MPs and 30 MLAs belonging to Telangana region ( all from Congress party) who met at the Nizam's Club passed a resolution condemning the police repression and to urge the state government to lift curbs on the media immediately.
Later they met the Chief Minister in his office at C Block in the Secretariat.
Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy is understood to have clarified that the National Broadcasting Association issued guidelines to the press to observe restraint following Srikrishna Committee Report being tabled.
The Chief Minister is also believed to have told them that there was no role of the government in
the police excesses as the government issued clear instructions to them maintain only law and order for keeping peace.
Referring to the allegations that police had fired on students, Mr Sukender Reddy maintained that it was not reasonable to control the students' stir and suppress the Civil Rights through police repression.
Along with Mr Sukender Reddy, Mandha Jagannadham, M S Bhanuprasad were also present at the meeting.