Hyderabad: Gajwel, the Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, for the first time in the last 20 months of TRS rule, observed a bandh on Saturday.
Trade and business establishments remained shut in protest against the slapping of heavy property tax after the constituency was elevated as nagar panchayat.
Heavy police bundobast was deployed in the town near the Hyderabad-Karimnagar highway following holding of the “all Opposition bandh”.
TD leader Vanteru Pratap Reddy, who had contested unsuccessfully against the Chief Minister in the last General Elections, and several activists of various Opposition parties were taken into preventive custody and shifted to Daulatabad police station.
Alleging police highhandedness against him and other activists, Mr Pratap Reddy said, “When the two states were united, the property tax used to be Rs 100, but after formation of Telangana state, officials have raised it to '1,000 citing elevation of the panchayat into nagar panchayat.”
