Harish Rao, BRS leaders placed under house arrest ahead of Sanathnagar TIMS visit

BRS leaders T Harish Rao, P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Talasani Srinivas Yadav were placed under house arrest in Hyderabad on Wednesday after announcing plans to visit Sanathnagar TIMS hospital. The BRS condemned the police action and alleged suppression of Opposition.

Hyderabad: BRSLP deputy leader and former Minister T Harish Rao was placed under house arrest at his residence in Kokapet on Wednesday, as police deployed a large number of personnel to prevent him from visiting the newly inaugurated TIMS hospital at Sanathnagar.

Former Ministers P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Talasani Srinivas Yadav were also placed under house arrest after BRS leaders announced plans to visit the hospital. Police said the action was a precautionary measure to prevent any untoward incident during the proposed visit.

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The police arrived in large numbers at Harish Rao’s residence and informed that he was placed under house arrest. They told him that the BRS leaders had no permission to enter the Sanathnagar TIMS hospital and stopped them from proceeding.

Tension prevailed outside Harish Rao’s residence as he attempted to leave the premises and police prevented him by obstructing his vehicle. LB Nagar MLA Sudheer Reddy reached the residence after learning about the house arrest. BRS workers also gathered in large numbers and objected to the police action.

Sabitha Indra Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav and other BRS leaders also attempted to leave, but the police obstructed them, leading to heated arguments.

The house arrest came amid a political dispute between the Congress government and the BRS over the TIMS hospital. The BRS has been alleging that most of the works on the hospital were completed during its government and that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy merely inaugurated the project.

Meanwhile, Harish Rao condemned the preventive arrests and house arrest, alleging that the government was afraid that its failures and deficiencies in the hospitals would be exposed if opposition leaders visited the facility. He accused the Congress government of trying to silence the Opposition through police restrictions and described the action as an undeclared Emergency. He said questioning the government on public issues could not be treated as a reason for imposing house arrests.

The BRS strongly objected to the police action and termed the restrictions on its leaders’ visit to the hospital an attempt to suppress democratic scrutiny. The party alleged that the government was deliberately preventing its leaders from inspecting the facility.

On the other hand, the outsourcing staff of TIMS hospital at Sanathnagar staged a protest at the hospital main entrance, demanding for payment of their salaries. They complained that the contract agency was not paying them salaries for the last four months.