Hyderabad: High-rise grill to halt protestors storming Pragathi Bhavan

Hyderabad: The road in front of Pragathi Bhavan will become narrower by about two to three feet once the ongoing works of security beef up is completed.

Following recent incidents where two brothers tried to commit suicide as the convoy of Harish Rao was entering the camp office and the attempt of Congress MP A Revanth Reddy to barge into the Pragathi Bhavan with his followers and a few other such incidents made the police go in for these measures, officials said.

According to police sources, this will prevent protestors from barging towards Pragathi Bhavan from across the road. The iron grills are being erected in the middle of the road on a two-feet concrete slab. The height of the grills would be about five to six feet. However, the police claim that this will not cause any problem to the traffic flow. Cops will be deployed at the site in order to control and monitor the traffic.

Political parties are strongly criticising this measure on two counts. One they say the protest is their democratic right and secondly the landscape of the entire areas would be spoiled with the iron grills and would also cause traffic snarls as the width of the road on each side would be reduced by about two feet.

They also say that the government itself was responsible for dharnas and protests in front of Pragathi Bhavan since it has done away with the dharna chowk near Indira Park. They said if the dharna chowk was restored, there would have been no need for erecting the huge grills. Ever since the TS government came to power, it has been against any form of protest which is a violation of the constitutional rights of every citizen, they add.