Tadipatri civic chief JC Prabhakar Reddy calls off 2-day protest

Tadipatri (Anantapur): Municipal chairman JC Prabhakar Reddy organised a sit-in protest at the municipal office here for the last two days against local MLA Kethireddi's unilateral approach in organising official meetings. He gave up his protest after Municipal Commissioner Narasimha Prasada Reddy appealed to him to call off his agitation and participated in a review meeting convened by the chairman.

The political tussle between the two archrivals - local YSRCP MLA Kethireddy Peddareddy and Tadipatri municipal chairman J C Prabhakara Reddy of the TDP is taking an ugly turn with each passing day and both the political functionaries are taking it as a matter of personal prestige on every minor issue.

Both of them are challenging each other's authority and their antagonism towards each other has reached a feverish pitch with MLA Kethireddi thwarting official review programmes arranged by municipal chairman Prabhakar Reddy on Monday and landing the municipal officials and personnel in dire straits and in a piquant situation. MLA Kethireddi organised a rally on Covid awareness during the same time when chairman Prabhakar Reddy called for a review meeting enraging the latter and prompting him to file a missing case against the employees and officials who failed to attend his meeting at the Tadipatri police station.

He staged a sit-in at the municipal office on Monday night and waited for officials to turn up for the meeting. When a couple of employees turned up, he bowed to the employees and welcomed them on a sarcastic note.

The open confrontation between the two embarrassed Municipal Commissioner Narasimha Prasad Reddy and after attending the rally called for by MLA, he applied leave for a day and disappeared. This enraged the chairman who tried in vain to contact the commissioner on telephone to demand his explanation for his sudden disappearance. The outbursts of the two leaders (the MLA and municipal chairman) against each other every day is embarrassing the officials who are in a fix on obeying the orders of both functionaries especially when there is a clash in programmes.

Meanwhile, Prabhakar Reddy told the media that he has given up his protest with a view not to embarrass the officials. He maintained that the MLA who is an ex-officio member of the council has no right to behave in such an odd manner. He claimed that the chairman and the council are powerful and that he can easily suspend him, he added.

He said that he is not stretching the issue further to avoid further inconvenience to officials.