Congress to lay siege to Pragati Bhavan today

Hyderabad: Senior leaders of Congress party on Sunday discussed the strategy to be adopted for the proposed siege of Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, on October 21 in protest against TRS government's failure to resolve the problems of RTC employees who are on strike since October 5.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) working president and Malkajgiri MP A Revanth Reddy, Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkatreddy, AICC member Daya Sagar and other senior leaders met at the residence of former Minister and former Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir in Jubilee Hills. They discussed various issues, especially the protest plan to lay siege to Pragati Bhavan.

Speaking to media persons later, Shabbir Ali said the Congress party had set October 19 as the deadline for the Chief Minister to resolve the RTC crisis.

He said that the Congress had also warned that it would lay siege to Pragati Bhavan on October 21 if the Chief Minister fails to resolve the problems of RTC employees to end their strike.

However, he said that the Chief Minister appears to be in no mood to change his adamant attitude. The Chief Minister has openly disobeyed the orders of High Court which asked the government to initiate talks with the employees at 10.30 am on Saturday (October 19).

"This is highly shocking that a Chief Minister is refusing to follow orders of the High Court. He did not even appoint a full-fledged Managing Director for RTC despite High Court ordering for the same a week ago. Are we living in a dictatorship or democracy?" he asked.

Shabbir Ali alleged that the Chief Minister was giving a wrong message that he was above law. "By engineering large scale defections, K Chandrashekar Rao dismantled Legislature.

He also reduced the importance of Executive by not consulting the IAS officers on important issues. Now he is targeting the judiciary by not following the directives of High Court.

This is an alarming situation. Immediate corrective measures must be taken to restore democracy in Telangana," he said.

The Congress leader said that by dragging on the RTC strike, the Chief Minister was indulging in vendetta politics wherein he wants to punish the RTC employees for disobeying his orders to end the strike.

He said that the Chief Minister was neither concerned about the inconvenience being caused to general public nor bothered about the problems of RTC employees.

The Chief Minister just wants to satisfy his false ego and expects everyone to act like his slaves, he alleged. Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party would continue to support the RTC employees till their demands were accepted.

He announced that the Congress party would lay siege to Pragati Bhavan on October 21 under all circumstances. He appealed all the Congress workers to participate in the protest and make it a success.