Tension mounted in Secunderabad late on Sunday night after the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti founder president Manda Krishna Madiga gave a call to lay siege to Tank Bund.
The sudden announcement that stunned the City police came at the fag end of the memorial meeting organised at Sikh Village in Secunderabad in memory of MRPS leader Bharati, who died after she collapsed at a dharna programme in front of the Hyderabad Collectorate some time back.
Taken aback by the turn of events, the police reacted quickly and tried to obstruct the workers from going in a rally towards the Tank Bund. Police put up barricades at Paradise, Ranigunj and others roads leading to Tank Bund.
As the World Telugu Conference (WTC) is on, the police did not take any risk and began to round up the protesters.
The police first tried to stop Manda Krishna at Paradise, but the MRPS workers forcibly proceeded and the police detained them near Ramgopalpet police station. Police caned the protesters and bundled Manda Krishna into a police van and whisked him away. The other activists were detained and taken away in police vans. The protesters damaged a police patrolling van near Paradise.
A large number of MRPS workers from different parts of the City attended the rally and heard in rapt attention the speech of Manda Krishna. Squarely blaming the two Telugu States for not initiating any action on the sub-categorisation of the SCs, the MRPS leader said his party would not budge till the Telangana government initiated steps to get the SC sub-categorisation done immediately through passage of a Bill in Parliament.
MRPS leader Rudravaram Lingaswamy told The Hindu they were proceeding to Tank Bund on a call given by the party chief and it was peaceful rally. “The police used force to detain us. They bundled us in a van and whisked us away to undisclosed destination. Two women fell unconscious after they were hurt in the cane charge,” he said.
Till reports last came in, tension was in the air at Paradise and nearby areas. Security was beefed up in view of the incident. City Police Commissioner V. V. Srinivasa Rao and other senior police officials were at Paradise junction, according to sources.
