Telangana protests reaches Parliament's doorstep

Pro-Telangana fury reached dangerously close to the doors of Parliament on Monday when around 200 protesting lawyers from the region broke the police cordon in a major security breach.

Shouting slogans for a separate state, the lawyers under the aegis of Telangana Lawyers Joint Action Committee, first assembled at Jantar Mantar at one end of Parliament street for the demonstration and managed to reach just 100 metres away from the highly protected building after hoodwinking the police. The lawyers were later arrested by police.

The protesting lawyers removed their black coats and silently walked towards Parliament, less than one km away. The protestors later broke into small groups and once they reached close to Parliament, they donned the coats again and reached the Parliament House annexe nearby shouting slogans around 3 pm shortly after the end of the first day of Budget Session of Parliament.

However, police managed to stop the agitators 100 metres away from the Parliament House after Delhi Police and CRPF swung into action. Raising slogans, some protestors even managed to break the cordon again and run towards Parliament House but were caught by the security personnel.

For almost 90 minutes, the protestors blocked the traffic on the stretch near Parliament. Security personnel later herded the protestors to police vans after arresting them. The Telangana issue also echoed both inside and outside the Parliament house.

Congress MPs from Telangana region demonstrated in front of the Parliament shouting slogans in favour of separate state. Showing placards, they also protested inside the Central Hall after the contentious Telangana issue did not find mention in President Pratibha Patil's address.