YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) leader YS Sharmila’s padyatra could not resume in Warangal district on Sunday as the police are yet to give permission for the same.
The Warangal district police has issued a show cause notice to them, asking them to show cause as to why the application for permission should not be rejected as the conditions laid down while granting the permission were violated earlier.
Responding to this, Sharmila said that a legal reply would be handed over to the Warangal Police. He said that if the police still failed to allow resumption of the padyatra, the party would fight a legal battle.
It had planned to resume the walkathon from Lingagiri Cross in Narasampet, where the walk was halted on November 28 following an attack allegedly by workers of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Protesters had set Sharmila’s bus on fire and pelted stones at other vehicles, protesting against some remarks made by Sharmila against the local TRS MLA. Police later arrested Sharmila as she refused to call off the padyatra in view of the tense situation in the area.
The police had shifted Sharmila to Hyderabad. The next day, while leading a protest march towards the official residence of the chief minister, she was arrested again amid high drama. She was driving the car damaged in the attack and Chief Minister K. Wanted to protest in front of Chandrasekhar Rao’s residence. However, the police stopped him on the way. When he refused to come out of the car, the police took him to the police station.
The sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and some other YSRTP leaders were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and produced before a magistrate. The court granted him bail.
The same day, the Telangana High Court granted conditional permission to the YSRTP to resume the padayatra.
The YSRTP leader met Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on 1 December and urged him to intervene and seek a report from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the DGP’s office on the manner in which he was arrested in Hyderabad.
In a representation submitted to the Governor, he alleged that the TRS government was ‘trampling the hands raised in protest, and stifling the voices crying out in despair’.
Sharmila told the governor that she now sees a potential threat to the lives of committed party workers and their padyatras are under constant attack.
The next day, he submitted a memorandum to DGP Mahender Reddy, requesting him to direct police officials to provide adequate security for his padyatra, which he resumed on Friday. He also asked the DGP to act against politically motivated “anti-social elements” and said there was a serious threat to the lives of party workers.
He said he was receiving threats from leaders of the ruling party in Warangal district that he would be targeted everywhere.
Sharmila, daughter of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, began her 4,000-km ‘Praja Prasthanam Padayatra’ on October 20, 2021. Last week, he completed the 3,500 km journey.
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