Protests Rageover Police &Lsquo;brutality’ On Students

 Hyderabad, Sept. 20:Telangana protagonists once again took to the streets on Tuesday to protestagainst the alleged police brutality yesterday on the students in the NizamCollege Hostel and in the OU Campus.

            Toexpress their strong resentment against the police action, a human chain wasorganized at the Gun Park before StateAssembly under the aegis of Telangana Jagruthi and led by its president, MsKavitha. Scores of striking lecturers, teachers and advocates and TRS workersparticipated in forming a human chain.

            Later,led by Ms Kavitha, the BJP senior leader and former Union minister, Mr BandaruDattatreya, and leader of the lecturers, Mr Mahender Reddy, the agitators triedto storm into the Assembly. The security personnel and the police prevented theagitators from surging forward leading to a tense situation. Later, the leadersand others were arrested and whisked away to Falaknuma Police Station.

             Meanwhile, the students of Osmania Universityplanned a bike rally from the campus to Secretariat. The large contingent ofpolice posted near the campus stopped the students near the NCC Gate. Tensionprevailed for quite some time with the students trying to break the cardon andthe policemen getting ready to charge against the violators.

             On the other hand, the Sakala Janula Sammeentered the eighth day today and the RTC buses remained off the roads forsecond day in all the 10 districts of the region. The striking RTC employees inthe State capital tried to lay siege to Bus Bhavan, the office headquarters ofthe Corporation at RTC Cross Roads. However, they were prevented by the policeto storm inside. Senior APSRTC officials invited the leaders of the employeesfor discussions to persuade them to withdraw the strike and prevent hardshipsto the commuters and revenue loss to the Corporation.

            TheState government decided to take firm steps to ease the hardships of thecommuters by operating some buses in the twin cities with adequate policeescorts. As a matter of fact, 137 buses were provided with armed police escortsand operated on certain routes. This together with the running of Setwin buseshas come as big relief to the harassed and beleaguered office-going staff.

            Noticingthe plying of buses, the Telangana agitators indulged in stoning at Kothapet onthe city outskirts in which five buses were damaged. The police resorted to alathi-charge and arrested some indulging in stoning. However, there was norespite for passengers in the villages, mandals and towns in all the districtsas the buses remained parked in the depots.

            Thoughthere was no blockade of the highways, the Telangana region virtually remainedcut off from the rest of the State due to the RTC employees continuing thestrike and the buses remaining off the roads