Hyderabad: Scores of activists were taken into preventive custody across Telangana as a Joint Action Committee (JAC) is gearing up to stage the “Million March” on Saturday to expose the failures of the K.Chandrasekhar Rao government.
The Left parties have supported the JAC’s call. However, the city police have denied permission for the rally. The JAC chairman professor M. Kodandaram announced that the march would be held defying the police order.
A total of 6,000 police personnel have been deployed across the state. Hyderabad Central zone police imposed restrictions on vehicular movement on Tank Bund.
The police have surrounded Kodandaram’s house in Secunderabad’s Tarnaka area.
Special police forces, including rapid response teams, have been deployed at the Osmania University, the hotbed of the Telangana movement till 2014.
Speaking to TNM, Kondandram said, “It was a collective struggle by the people of the state. He (KCR) doesn’t want the people to know that Telangana is an outcome of a people’s struggle. He wants everyone to remember it as him who achieved the Telangana dream. He wants his own domination and autocratic rule to be legitimized. He doesn’t want any other perspective which would challenge it,” he said.
Accusing the police of flouting rules Kondandram said,
“More than 3,000 activists have been detained and there are cases where a few were denied food. This is unconstitutional,” he added.
The first “Million March” was held on March 10, 2011, to highlight the demand of the people of Telangana for a separate state.
As crusader of the movement, Chandrasekhar Rao supported the event. But, this time, the event is against his rule.
“Just because they have the power, they cannot suppress the right of the people to protest”, Kodandaram had said.
(With inputs from IANS)