Hyderabad: The stone-setting function of the sweet-lime market yard in Nalgonda town scheduled for Tuesday evening turned into a battlefield between the ruling TRS and the Opposition Congress. Police took senior Congress legislator and former minister Komati-reddy Venkata Reddy into preventive custody and took him to Miryalaguda.
There was a demand for a separate market yard for sweet limes. On Tuesday the stone-setting ceremony for the same was scheduled to be carried out by irrigation and marketing minister T. Harish Rao and local minister for energy G. Jagadiswara Reddy.
However, before that local MLA Komatireddy Venkatareddy led a rally of 2,000 bikes and other vehicles and stormed the market yard. He staged a sit-in alleging that he was not invited to the event. He said that as per protocol he had to be given prominence in all government programmes. Local TRS leader Dubbaka Narasimha Reddy rushed to the spot and TRS workers hurled stones at Congress workers and attacked them with sticks. The Congressmen retaliated, and the clash continued for an hour. Police tried to disperse the crowd with a mild cane-charge. Some 10 persons were injured and have been admitted to a local hospital, a report said.
Police also took the MLA into custody and shifted him to Miryalaguda. Later, ministers reached the venue and the function was held. Criticising Mr Komatireddy the irrigation minister said when he visited the NS Dam left low canal inaugural function, the local MLA and Leader of Opposition K. Janareddy participated in it without any complaint. At Nalgonda, when a similar function was held, Komatireddy exhibited his arrogance by trying to unveil the plaque without others attending it.
Komatireddy said a TRS leader was defeated by him in the last elections and he was still trying to take credit for the market.
He alleged that the TRS was trying to unleash terror in the district by conducting all government functions as party events.
