When Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced that the government would name the Telangana State Police Academy in the name of Raja Bahadur Venkatrama Reddy, the kotwal (police commissioner) during the Nizam government, there were claps everywhere in the audience at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Reddy hostel complex on Tuesday.
The chief minister went on to say that the big people of Telangana were grossly neglected during the regime of combined Andhra Pradesh.
“The Kukatpally Housing Board Colony was established by Telangana leader Dharma Reddy, but his name was ignored by the Andhra rulers,” he alleged.
Within no time, there were also murmurs over KCR’s allegations. Media persons who heard his claim on renaming of Telangana State Police Academy were surprised as the name has already been changed during the Kiran Kumar Reddy government of united Andhra Pradesh.
It was Kiran Kumar Reddy, who had issued a government order (GO Ms No. 83 dated March 14, 2013) changing the name of then Andhra Pradesh Police Academy in the name of Raja Bahadur Venkatrama Reddy. After the bifurcation of AP, too, the name has been retained, a journalist pointed out.
Ironically, the same person who made a representation to Kiran Kumar Reddy was also present when KCR was making an announcement. It is surprising that the chief minister was not aware that the academy is already named after the great Reddy!
