Several activists of various trade unions affiliated to the CITU, the AITUC and the INTUC as well as the TBGKS were taken into preventive custody by the police in Telangana’s coal belt region this morning in view of the major trade unions’ call for protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Ramagundam, the industrial hub of Telangana, this afternoon.
The CITU-affiliated Singareni Collieries Employees Union (SCEU) president T Raja Reddy was among those taken into preventive custody by the police in the coal town of Godavarikhani early this morning.
Coal workers owing allegiance to the major trade unions attended duties wearing black badges in various coal mines in Mancherial district as a mark of protest against the Centre’s alleged attempts to auction four coal blocks in Telangana for commercial mining.
The Mahatma Gandhi stadium in the NTPC township in Ramagundam, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public function this afternoon, virtually turned into a fortress with the deployment of a large contingent of police personnel in and around the stadium.
A little over 2000 police personnel drawn from the erstwhile composite Karimnagar and other neighbouring districts have been deployed for the bandobust duty in Ramagundam.
The Special Protection Group (SPG) has taken over the security at the helipad, the Mahatma Gandhi stadium and the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) plant as part of security protocols.
The Prime Minister is slated to dedicate the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) plant and the Bhadrachalam Road (Kothagudem)-Sattupalli new railway line project to the nation and also lay foundation stones for various road projects worth over Rs 9500 crore at a public function to be held in Ramagundam late in the afternoon today.
The CPI State secretary K. Sambasiva Rao and his followers were arrested in anticipation that they might hold an anti-Modi demonstration at Godavarikhani. The chairman of joint action committee of people’s organisations Gajjala Kantham was detained on way from Hyderabad to Ramagundam at Siddipet. The handloom weavers youth force held up a clutch of black baloons and displayed ‘Modi go back’ placards in protest against five per cent GST on handlooms at KBR Park in Hyderabad.
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