Even as Y S Sharmila, daughter of former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajesekhar Reddy, is getting ready for the launch of her new regional party at a public meeting in Khammam on Friday, the TRS government is trying to create on hurdle or the other by imposing several restrictions.
According to Sharmila’s close aide Konda Raghava Reddy, who is supervising the arrangements for the meeting said, they had obtained permission the Khammam police for the conduct of the public meeting last month itself, after giving an assurance that they would strictly follow the Covid-19 norms.
However, he alleged that the local Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders were trying to create hurdles to the meeting in the name of second wave of Coronavirus.
“In fact, the number of Covid-19 cases in Khammam are very less. Yet, we shall take all precautions,” Reddy said.
The Khammam police said permission was granted to Sharmila’s meeting on the condition that there would be strict adherence to Covid-19 norms.
“We have asked them to restrict the crowd to around 6,000 and everybody should follow the Covid-19 norms. If there is any violation, we shall take stringent action,” a senior cop said.
He made it clear that there was no question of allowing one lakh people, as planned by the Sharmila party.
Ironically, there seem to be no such restrictions on the mobilisation of crowds for the public meeting of TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Halia in Nagarjunsagar assembly constituency on April 14.
The TRS leaders have openly announced that they would ensure a turnout of at least one lakh people to KCR’s public meeting. They, too, claimed that the crowds would follow Covid-19 norms.
If the police give permission to KCR’s meeting without any conditions, they should also give similar permission for Sharmila’s meeting. Why these double standards?
