BJYM stages protest near Telangana Assembly over land auction
Hyderabad, March 18: Mild tension prevailed near Telangana Assembly as Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and former sarpanches tried to stage protests on Tuesday.
While BJYM workers staged a protest over the auction of land adjacent to Hyderabad Central University, sarpanches were demanding payment of pending bills.
Holding placards and raising slogans, the protestors tried to advance towards the Assembly but were stopped by the police. They were demanding that the state government protect the land of Hyderabad Central University.
Police physically lifted the protestors, bundled them into police vans and whisked them away.
BJP floor leader in Assembly A. Maheshwar Reddy was also detained by the police when he joined the BJYM protestors.
The police whisked away the BJP leader into Assembly premises. Later Maheshwar Reddy along with BJP MLAs staged a dharna in the Assembly premises, demanding release of the arrested BJYM leaders.
Former sarpanches also tried to march towards the Assembly to demand that the state government clear their long-pending bills.
The protestors said that during their tenure as sarpanches they borrowed money to take up works like building graveyards, playgrounds and dumping yards. The bills for these works undertaken since 2019 have not been cleared
Former sarpanches said before Assembly elections last year, leaders of the Congress party had promised that if voted to power they would solve their problems.
Students of Hyderabad Central University have been protesting for the last few days against the proposed auction of 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli, adjacent to the university.
Students, teachers, non-teaching staff and workers have come together to form a Joint Action Committee to stop the auction.
Various student groups have been organising protests on the campus to demand a halt to the auction of land. They say the land auction would create ecological imbalance and destroy flora and fauna on the campus.
The land is being auctioned through the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC). Bids for auction closed on March 15.
The land was earlier allotted to IMG Academies Bharata, which failed to fulfill the development obligation. The state government initiated the auction process after the High Court permitted the same.