Amid chaotic scenes, the police arrested the BJP State chief and MP Bandi Sanjay here after storming his camp office, foiling his 10-hour ‘Jagarana Deeksha’ on Sunday night.
Several other BJP cadres were also arrested from the Deeksha site where they had gathered expressing solidarity with the agitated State government employees and teachers against the GO 317 and the “arbitrary zonal transfer policy.”
Tension mounted at the MP’s camp office when a large posse of police personnel stormed into the conference hall after breaking open the door lock on Sunday night, around two hours after Mr Sanjay launched his deeksha inside his camp office.
Mr Sanjay was brought out of the office and bundled into a police vehicle even as the party cadres put up stiff opposition, amid loud sloganeering against the TRS regime. Karimnagar Police Commissioner V Satyanarayana told reporters that around 120 BJP cadres were taken into preventive custody for gathering at the unauthorised meeting. Cases will be booked under the relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act against those who violated the COVID-19 safety regulations, he said.
The deeksha was called by Mr. Sanjay to press for amendments to the “controversial” GO 317 and frame fresh guidelines for transfer of employees and teachers based on nativity in consultation with the unions representing the staff.
Earlier, speaking to mediapersons, a visibly angry Mr Sanjay alleged that the TRS regime was trying to curb the democratic protest to amplify the travails of thousands of employees and teachers distraught over the ‘arbitrary’ zonal transfer policy (GO 317). He hit out at the TRS dispensation accusing it of thrusting the controversial GO on the employees and teachers in a dictatorial manner.
Taking a dig at Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he said that the TRS regime remained callous to the travails of thousands of teachers and employees whose struggle ‘Sakala Janula Samme’ paved the way for formation of Telangana State. He warned of serious consequences if the persons at the helm obstructed the democratic protest on “one pretext or another.”
