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Union MoS for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar during a protest in support of TSPSC Group 1 aspirants, demanding postponement of Mains examination, in Hyderabad on Saturday. (PTI)
Amid tension and slogan shouting by the protesters, police officers forced Kumar to sit in the vehicle, drove him away, and dropped him at the BJP office.
Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar and BRS leader were detained by police while staging a protest at Telangana Secretariat along with students demanding postponement of Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) Group-I Main examination.
The protest by the candidate and supported by the leaders of both opposition parties (BRS and BJP) caused tension around the Secretariat.
Police detained Bandi Sanjay Kumar and chased him away as he sat in protest at the statue of Ambedkar near the Secretariat after leading a protest march from Ashok Nagar, demanding the government withdraw the Government Order (GO), which amended the reservation rules.
Amid tension and slogan shouting by the protesters, the police officers forced Bandi Sanjay Kumar to sit in the vehicle, drove him away, and dropped him at the BJP office.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders RS Praveen Kumar, Srinivas Goud, Sravan Kumar and others were also detained by the police along with several protesters. He was taken to various police stations.
There were also heated arguments between BJP and BRS workers during the protest. The two groups pushed each other.
Earlier, Bandi Sanjay Kumar sat in protest at the Ambedkar Statue at Tank Bund along with protesters after the police prevented him from going to the Secretariat.
Supporting the demands of the candidates, Bandi Sanjay reached the Ashok Nagar area, the epicenter of protests for the past three days.
The BJP leader wants to meet the Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary to make a representation regarding the request to postpone the exam, which is scheduled to begin on October 21.
As tensions rose, the police stopped the rally. Bandi Sanjay Kumar found fault in the action of the police and insisted on being allowed to go to the Secretariat.
However, the police officer told us that there was no permission for the public meeting. They sat on the road at Ambedkar’s statue in protest.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar demanded the state government to reconsider its stand. Saying that students have been protesting for a week, he asked how they could write the exam in this situation.
He also said that the police used a high hand by beating up female students and even pregnant women.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that he had come to meet the students and support their demand as a BJP worker and not as a Union Minister of State. He demanded that the government scrap ‘GO 29’ which tweaked the reservation policy.
The Group-I Main Examination for filling up 563 posts in various departments is scheduled to be held from October 21 to 27.
The Telangana High Court on Friday dismissed two petitions challenging the order of the single judge, refusing to postpone the examination.
A single-judge bench on October 15 rejected the petition of several candidates for postponement of the examination.
Students have been protesting in the Ashok Nagar area, which has many hostels and coaching institutes.
Candidates demanding the postponement of the exam said that GO 29 will reorganize the prelim list. About 22 cases challenging the GO are pending in the High Court. He said that the GO is tweaking the reservation policy and this will limit the chances of candidates from reserved categories.
A total of 31,383 candidates will be scheduled for the exam which will be held at 46 centers in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal Malkajgiri districts. These candidates qualified for the Group-1 Main examination out of around 3.02 lakh who appeared in the preliminary examination held in June.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from the feed of syndicated news agency – IANS)
