NTP ‘declares’ Telangana State

HYDERABAD: As the Nava Telangana Party (NTP) ‘declared creation’ of Telangana State here on Sunday, its cadre went berserk and damaged four RTC buses in front of the Chikkadpally police station where party president T. Devender Goud was held.

Mr. Goud and 350 NTP supporters were taken into custody by the police as they tried to proceed to the Secretariat from Indira Park following the ‘self-declaration’ of the State. The party gave a call to a large gathering which participated in a public meeting at Indira Park to change the name of ‘Andhra Pradesh Secretariat’ to ‘Telangana State’.

Mr. Goud boarded a packed open truck to Chikkadpally police station but the rest of his supporters were shifted to the Gandhinagar police station. The refusal of the NTP president to leave the station until all those detained at Gandhinagar were released triggered trouble.

The activists who were set free at Gandhinagar gathered at Chikkadpally and pelted stones on buses, injuring one of the drivers. The mob also staged a dharna and burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in front of the police station, paralysing traffic on the main thoroughfares. Mr. Goud left the station only after the tension subsided.

Earlier, Mr. Goud asked the crowd to replace the name ‘Andhra Pradesh’ with Telangana on the signboards at all government offices since the new State had come into being. The letters ‘AP’ should be replaced with ‘TG’ on the number plates of all vehicles which should also bear stickers embossed with the name and map of Telangana. The ‘declaration’ of the State was made amid release of 10 pigeons, each symbolising a district of Telangana, by veteran leader Konda Laxman Bapuji.

Yuva Garjana will focus on corruption: TDP leader

Kakinada: The district in-charge of Telugu Desam Party’s ‘Yuva Garjana’, Y.B. Rajendra Prasad, has exuded confidence that the programme will earn a place in history as an unprecedented event in spite of the Congress attempts to create problems. “The government has, for instance, refused to supply the full number of RTC buses requested by the TDP whereas the RTC was made to deploy a huge number of its vehicles at nominal charges during the visits of AICC president Sonia Gandhi. The TDP is, however, undeterred by such cheap tactics which are meant to undermine its efforts to expose the government’s wrongdoings,” he said.

Dig at YSR

Addressing media persons here on Sunday, Mr. Rajendra Prasad said that the TDP would explain to people, particularly youth on whose shoulders lied the burden of protecting the State’s resources in future, how the Congress leaders were achieving personal advancement in collusion with contractors.

“Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has earned the dubious distinction of being one of the most corrupt Chief Ministers in the country and he was able to sustain his goodwill in the party high-command by sending money bags,” Mr. Prasad alleged.

“The Yuva Garjana will focus on corruption in high places, which has become the bane of people of Andhra Pradesh. Besides, the Congress has failed to keep many promises it had made during the 2004 elections. To compound the people’s woes, it sought to promote projects like the coastal corridor and Special Economic Zones which were obviously intended to benefit capitalists. The people will be therefore asked to exercise their choice properly and be not lured by the overtures of the ruling party,” Mr. Prasad added.

TDP district president N. Chinna Rajappa said nearly 40,000 party activists from the district were expected to take part in Yuva Garjana.