Siege for power: 10 TRS MLAs arrested

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Ten Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLAs and a member of the AP Legislative Council, Mr Naradasu Lakshman, were arrested for laying siege to Vidyut Soudha on Tuesday. Two of them, Vinay Bhaskar and A. Ravindra Reddy, had locked themselves in the APTransco office to avoid arrest. The duo refused to leave, demanding that the CM issue a personal assurance that seven hours of power supply would be provided to the agricultural sector in the T-region.

Police responded by deploying a special OCTOPUS team to unlock the room and arrested the two leaders nearly eight hours after the siege began. TRS floor leader Etala Rajender, deputy floor leader T. Harish Rao and other MLAs arrested at Vidyut Soudha and taken to Bollarum and Golconda police stations continued their deeksha in pursuance of their demands till late in the night.

The protest by the TRS came in the wake of the state government making it official that there would be a three-hour power cut in the city from Tuesday. The TRS MLAs claimed that 7-hour power supply was being given to farmers in the Seemandhra region, while farmers in the T region were neglected. They refused to leave even after Transco chairman and MD Hiralal Samariya gave a memo assuring continuous power supply.

The leaders demanded that the state government make its stand clear on power supply and expedite the work of pending thermal power plants in Telangana regions. They also demanded the introduction of energy conservation measures. The protest started with the MLAs and other party representatives gathering outside the Vidyut Soudha around 10 am. This brought traffic on the busy Khairatabad-to-Punjagutta road to a crawl.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam activists staged dharnas at sub-stations in various districts. TD leaders will lay siege to the Vidyut Soudha on Wednes-day, demanding 7-hour power supply to farmers.