Telangana protests rock Andhra House,Osmania

In the Assembly,MLAs demanding Telangana statehood,protesting over students’ fee reimbursement issue and suspension of three TRS and two TDP members for unruly behaviour did not allow the House to proceed even for 10 minutes. For the third day,TRS members stormed the Speaker’s podium demanding a resolution on creation of a separate state. The TDP members joined the protest,demanding that the suspension of five MLAs be revoked immediately. Embarrassing the Congress government,11 party MLAs,loyal to Y S Jaganmohan Reddy,also protested demanding that the government immediately release funds for reimbursement of tuition fee for students pursuing professional courses. Three Congress MLAs from Telangana stood up and raised slogans in support of a separate state.

As the House could not continue,Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar adjourned the House three times.

Raising the issue as soon as the House began on Monday morning,Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu urged Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar,who was in the Chair,to reconsider the suspension of MLAs. “You should have at least heard the version of the MLAs before suspending them,you did not show any restraint,” Chandrababu told Manohar,and demanded that the members’ suspension be revoked immediately. Labour Minister Danam Nagender intervened and said the issue could be reconsidered if the suspended MLAs tendered an unconditional apology to the House and to the people of state over their behaviour. This sparked another round of protests with both TRS and TDP alleging that the minister was using unparliamentary language. The House was adjourned for the day without transacting any business.

Outside the Assembly,there were incidents of sporadic violence as students of Osmania University clashed with the police who were preventing them from taking out a rally. Maoist sympathiser and balladeer Gaddar was arrested at Tank Bund when he tried to march towards the Assembly. The students took out a rally from the campus to the Assembly,but finding that police cordons,barricades and barbed wire blocks were put up everywhere,they went on the rampage at Jamia Osmania Road Railway Station and Necklace Road Railway Station,smashing reservation counters and computers,and trying to set fire to a suburban train. South Central Railways immediately suspended local trains for a few hours.

Hundreds of students who participated in the march,some without shirts,fought pitched battles with the police and paramilitary forces outside the campus and the Assembly building. Several students and police personnel were injured as the students pelted stones and the police retaliated with both baton charge and tear gas shells. The violence spread to Nizam College where students tried to take out another rally.

The police had denied permission to the Osmania University Joint Action Committee to take out rallies,Police Commissioner A K Khan said. He said hundreds of students tried to take out a rally from the Arts College of Osmania towards NCC Gate and tried to remove barricades put up by police.

The police closed Raj Bhavan Road for traffic for several hours after pro-Telangana lawyers tried to take out a procession to submit a memorandum to Governor E S L Narasimhan. Some lawyers were also detained.