Despite the denial of permission for the ‘Chalo Sircilla’ meeting on Monday, the Congress will go ahead with its programme but will make minor changes depending on the High Court’s decision on Monday.
The Congress moved the Court against the Rajanna Sircilla district administration denying permission for the public meeting. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy hoped that the Court would give orders in their favour as it was a democratic right of the people to protest and organise meetings. “Should we sit and watch when Dalits and other normal citizens are attacked and brutally tortured by the police and the Government fails to take any affirmative action,” he said.
‘Why worry?’
Mr. Reddy asked why the Government was so worried about the public meeting? He reminded that the other day Sircilla MLA and IT Minister, K.T. Rama Rao had said the Congress can ahead with the programme in Sircilla. “Now they are worried over the massive response from people over the attacks,” he said.
If the court order doesn’t come in their favour Congress will go ahead with their plans meeting the Dalits now being treated at the Karimnagar hospital. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar along with the Congress leaders will personally call on the victims at the hospital and also the family members of the victims in the three villages — Nerella, Jillela and Ramchandrapur.
Meet families
Later, they will go to Sircilla and give a representation to the Ambedkar statue seeking justice to the families who have reportedly been tortured by the police and also threatened to be implicated in false cases. “There is no restriction on going to the villages or to Sircilla town. As of now local administration has only denied permission for the proposed public meeting at the junior college grounds,” Mr. Reddy said.
TPCC working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said Sircilla is not in a foreign country nor it is a restricted area. “As public representatives we will go there to meet the victims and extend our moral support,” he said.
‘Unconstitutional’
Meira Kumar arrived in the city on Sunday and she was received by TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy and senior leaders, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Sampath Kumar and T. Rammohan Reddy at the Hyderabad airport. Speaking at the Airport, she said the torture of Dalits by the police and the third degree methods used on them was a shame and their illegal confinement was against the Constitution. From the airport, she headed to Karimnagar for in the Chalo Sircilla programme.