Hyderabad: Opposition Congress and TDP on Thursday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao immediately expel Mahbubabad TRS MLA Shankar Naik from the party and book him under non-bailable sections for insulting and misbehaving with Mahbubabad District Collector Ms Preethi Meena.
Senior Congress MLA T. Jeevan Reddy and deputy leader in Legislative Council Ponguleti Sudhakara Reddy demanded action against Naik. Meanwhile, PAC chairperson and former minister J Geetha Reddy also condemned the incident.
“It seems there is a need to appoint a special SHE teams to protect women officers from harassment and insults by ruling party MLAs,” Ponguleti said.
TDP working president and Legislature Party leader A. Revanth Reddy held a press conference demanding that Naik be booked under the Criminal Procedure Code, failing which he would take up the matter with the National Women’s Commission and the courts to highlight the issue.
He accused the chief minister of not acting against the MLA despite the collector having brought the issue of the MLA’s misbehaviour with her in the past.
He charged that the chief minister had instead asked his Warangal district ministers to pacify the collector. He asked how the MLA had gotten bail “within two minutes” of being arrested by the local police.
“Instead of taking stern action like suspending the legislator from the party and booking non-bailable cases against him, the chief minister wanted to hush up the whole issue,” he alleged.
