BJP leaders arrested while protesting against fees reimbursement dues

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

Tension prevailed near the Secretariat here on Thursday as Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao and several party leaders were arrested while attempting to submit representations signed by over eight lakh students seeking immediate clearance of the State's pending fee reimbursement dues of Rs 15,000 crore. Rao, who had written to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy three days ago seeking an appointment to personally submit the representations, alleged that there had been no response from the government.

With the government failing to respond to the students' concerns, Ramchander Rao led BJP workers in a march towards the Secretariat to hand over the representations. Police stopped the BJP leaders near the Secretariat gates, leading to a protest. The police subsequently took Rao into custody and shifted him to Chikkadpally Police Station.Among those arrested were BJP state general secretary Goutham Rao, BJLP leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy, MP D K Aruna, MLC Malka Komaraiah and state secretary Bhandaru Vijaya Laxmi.

Condemning the arrests, the state BJP chief  accused the Congress government of adopting an "arrogant and anti-student" attitude. He said he had undertaken a hunger strike, written to the Chief Minister and collected over eight lakh representations from students, but the government had failed to act. He asserted that the Congress government could not silence nearly 40 lakh students and warned that the BJP would continue its agitation until the pending fee reimbursement dues were cleared.