Hyderabad: The foundation laying ceremony for the widening of the Hyderabad-Vijayawada road from LB Nagar to Batasingaram was as chaotic on Tuesday as the traffic on that stretch.
Angry supporters of local MLA D. Sudheer Reddy threw the microphones off the stage, where Union minister for road transport Oscar Fernandes, was to speak, and tore the background billboard. All this because Sudheer Reddy’s picture was not placed on the background billboard.
Fernandes was scheduled to lay the foundation at 4.30 pm at a roadside venue near LB Nagar junction but he didn’t arrive until 7 pm.
Prior to Fernandes’ scheduled arrival, a handful of Congress workers sat on the stage demanding that a photo of the local MLA be placed on the background billboard.
Soon more joined in and the protest grew bigger. Organisers of the programme then announced that officials of the Union ministry had permitted Sudheer Reddy’s photo to be placed on the background billboard and it would be done in less than 15 minutes.
However, local Congress leaders went on the stage and one of them tried to stir up the issue by talking on the microphone which on-duty ACP (Cyberabad), E. Ramachandra Reddy didn’t allow.
The minor tiff turned into a big altercation as the MLA’s supporters jumped barricades and stormed on to the stage, tearing off the background billboard and throwing microphones off the stage. In a matter of seconds, the mob turned the stage into a garbage bin.
A few people, apparently from some SC/ST associations, holding placards in support of the MLA also reached the venue after the mob damaged the stage.
However, Ramachandra Reddy said no arrests had been made.
Meanwhile, Sudheer Reddy said, “I will expose whatever backstabbing acts people are upto. Some people want to remove me, but I won’t let that happen.”
