Chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday decided to withdraw 135 “non-serious” cases against the students involved in Telangana agitation, but the Congress MPs from the region refused to give up their fast until all the cases were withdrawn.
Though ministers, including Mr K. Jana Reddy and Mr Basavaraj Saraiah, tried to persuade the fasting MPs led by the Rajya Sabha member K. Kesava Rao, they expressed dissatisfaction at the chief minister’s “piecemeal” action.
Later at night, when the ministers told them that the courts might object to lifting cases which involved damage to property, the MPs shot back: “Why do you worry about what the courts are going to say, let them take a decision. What we want is that the government should withdraw the cases, and leave it to the wisdom of courts.” The ministers returned about half-an-hour later after failing to persuase them.
When the ministers were cajoling the MPs to give up their protest, some Congressmen demanded that the ministers resign to force the CM to lift all cases.
Earlier, the Lok Sabha MPs, Mr G. Vinod (Pedapalli), Mr Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), Mr M. Rajaiah (Warangal), Mr Balaram Naik (Mahaboobabad), Mr Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy (Bhongir), Mr Gutta Sukhender Reddy (Nalgonda), Mr Sarve Satyanarayana (Malkajagiri), Mr Suresh Shetkar (Zaheerabad) and Mr Manda Jagannadham (Nagarkurnool), sat on an indefinite fast at Gun Park, near the Assembly.
At around 1 pm, Mr Jana Reddy and Mr Saraiah came to the Gun Park area and asked the MPs to withdraw the fast and assured that the chief minister would keep the promise made in the Assembly to withdraw the cases in phases.
However, Mr Satyanarayana, speaking for the fasting MPs, insisted that the government should announce withdrawal of all cases and only then would they call off the fast.
The ministers then met Mr Reddy. The chief minister then met home minister Sabita Indra Reddy and the DGP K. Aravinda Rao and discussed the issue. Following the meeting, the government decided to withdraw 135 cases in addition to 565 cases which have already been withdrawn.