Police foil BJP protest meeting

The police foiled the BJP legislature party leader A. Maheshwar Reddy and other leaders from holding a protest outside the Singareni Colleries office at Red Hills on Friday morning. Even as the leaders, including general secretary N. Gautam Rao reached the site and tried to do a sit-in, the police arrested them and whisked them away in their vehicles to the Begum Bazar police station.

Mr. Reddy and his colleagues had reached the corporate office of the company to express their opposition to the State Government making it to sponsor the Argentina player Lionel Messi’s visit to the city. The party has alleged that the Government is spending crores of rupees of public money just to please Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy who is a football fan.

The BJP leader questioned the need for the Government to spent such kind of money when the Kerala Government had refused to do so to host a similar function. The funds from the coal company could be better utilised to promote sports among people from within the mining region and for the employees welfare, he claimed and vowed to continue the protests till the Government’s explains its actions.