Telangana stir: TRS, BJP resort to picketing

In a bid to intensify their protest seeking statehood status for Telangana, members of the Telangana Rastriya Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday picketed the offices of all the district collectors. Members of both the parties came out in huge numbers and gheraoed the offices of the district collector and also shouted slogans in favour of a separate state.

The political joint action committee for Telangana has said that it would intensify its protests over the coming days and they would continue until the government tables the bill for a separate state in Parliament during the Budget session in February. The JAC said that in the next round of agitation, they will boycott all educational institutions and also ask officers to observe a pen-down strike. It would be exactly like the non-cooperation movement undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi, the JAC said.

Meanwhile, pro-Telangana organisations continued to stand outside the houses of representatives of both the Congress and the Telegu Desam Party from Telangana. They have demanded that the members of the legislative assembly and members of Parliament from the region quit their posts, as this will put additional pressure on the government to meet their demand. 

On the other hand, the Congress, which has nearly 60 MLAs from the Telangana region, has decided to wait until February for the government to table the bill in Parliament, and would all resign if the government fails to act by February.