TDP MP, MLAs held for protest outside CM's office

An MP and some MLAs of Telugu Desam Party were taken into police custody when they staged a protest in front of the Chief Minister's Office block in Hyderabad this afternoon, demanding that the government drop the move to enhance electricity tariff steeply.

TDP MP C M Ramesh and MLAs Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu, Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy, Errabilli Dayakar Rao and others came to the CMO to submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister on the power tariff issue. The Chief Minister was not present in his office at the time. The TDP leaders then staged a sit-in protest in front of the C-block that houses the CMO where they were taken into custody, police sources said.

They demanded that the government immediately drop the move to enhance power tariff in the ensuing financial year. Already the government has imposed a burden of over Rs 15,000 crore in the last couple of years in the form of power tariff hike as well as fuel surcharge adjustment. Inspite of all this, the government is unable to supply power as per the needs. The state has been pushed into darkness. Industries are shutting down, throwing lakhs of employees on the streets, the TDP leaders lamented.

They came down heavily on the Congress government over the inept handling of the power situation and pushing the state into deep crisis. As legislators we came here to represent people's issues to the government but there is none to listen to us, Muddukrishnama Naidu, deputy leader of Telugu Desam Legislature Party, regretted.