BRS stages protest over handcuffed farmer, demands immediate release

BRS legislators arrived at the Assembly building holding placards and chanting slogans in protest against the handcuffing of one of the arrested farmers. However, they were halted by police and Assembly security, who informed them that they did not have permission to enter with placards. Among those leading the protest were BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao and senior leader T. Harish Rao.

Hyderabad: Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) staged a protest at the Telangana Assembly complex over the alleged ill-treatment of farmers arrested in connection with the Lagacherla incident. The BRS legislators reached the Assembly building holding placards and raising slogans over the handcuffing of one of the arrested farmers.

They were stopped by the police and Assembly security personnel, saying there was no permission to enter the premises with placards.

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BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao and senior leader T. Harish Rao were among the MLAs who participated in the protest. They demanded the immediate release of all farmers.

A farmer lodged in Sangareddy Jail was handcuffed when he was taken to a hospital after he complained of chest pain on December 12. The tribal farmer Hirya Naik was arrested in connection with the attack on officials during a public hearing on land acquisition for a pharma cluster in Lagacherla village of Vikarabad district.

Taking serious note of the incident, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had ordered a probe. The same day Sangareddy Central Prison Superintendent Santosh Roy and Jailer P. Sanjeeva Reddy were suspended.

Meanwhile, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao took potshots at the Congress government over the arrests of farmers and the recent arrest of actor Allu Arjun. He also criticised the Chief Minister over his frequent visits to the national capital.

“As the Telangana Assembly proposes to discuss ‘Tourism policy’, the two specific areas where Congress Govt has achieved remarkable progress in this sector are 1) Delhi Tourism – More than 100 trips of CM and all Ministers combined! 2) Jail Tourism — 40 Kodangal farmers in Jail — Actors in Jail even after Bail — Social Media warriors being jailed — LnT CFO being threatened to be jailed,” Rama Rao posted on ‘X’.

Meanwhile, the BRS staged a walk-out from the Assembly over the issue of non-payment of long-pending bills of former sarpanches. The former sarpanches and other public representatives have been demanding the government to pay the bills to the tune of Rs.1,300 crore.

They say that they had borrowed money to take up various development works in their villages. Both the ruling Congress and opposition BRS blamed each other for pending bills.

Minister for Panchayat Raj Seethakka said that the Congress government inherited the arrears from the previous government. She said that if the then Finance Minister Harish Rao had signed a file, all the pending bills would have been cleared.

Responding to this, Harish Rao claimed that the BRS government was releasing Rs 275 core every month to gram panchayats under Palle Pragathi programme. He said the previous government said Rs 3,300 crore were released to gram panchayats since the launch of the scheme for the development of villages.

The BRS leader slammed the Congress government for not clearing the bills of poor sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs and small contractors for the last year. Terming the government’s reply to the important question raised by them as ‘irresponsible’ the BRS staged a walk-out.