A.P. to revoke 1,665 cases against students

The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday announced that it would withdraw all cases filed against students during the agitations for a Telangana state and a united Andhra Pradesh. Following this, nine Congress MPs from the Telangana region called off their fast.

Home Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy and Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy, along with four of their Cabinet colleagues, called on the fasting MPs at the New MLA Quarters in the evening and told them that all 1,665 cases, involving 8,047 students, would be withdrawn.

The Ministers offered lime juice, first to Congress Working Committee member K. Keshava Rao and then to Ponnam Prabhakar, Sarve Satyanarayana, G. Sukhender Reddy, S. Rajaiah, Balram Naik, Manda Jagannath, K. Rajagopal Reddy and G. Vivekananda. The MPs began the fast on Monday.

Hectic parleys preceded the breakthrough. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Pradesh Congress Committee president D. Srinivas and Ministers from the Telangana region were in constant touch with Mr. Keshava Rao.

At the Congress headquarters Gandhi Bhavan, Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy met Mr. Srinivas and followed it up with another meeting with Ministers D. Sridhar Babu, D.K. Aruna, Sunitha Laxma Reddy and Basawaraj Saraiah, besides Ms. Sabitha Indra Reddy and Mr. Jana Reddy.

After the meeting, a senior Minister contacted Mr. Keshava Rao and read out the statement. Then, the Home Minister and others made the announcement to journalists in the Secretariat.

“Generous” act

Responding to the appeal, Mr. Keshava Rao said the government's “generous” act would help the students immensely; otherwise, they would have lost the academic year.

Posted in: TELENGANA