NEWS

TRS chief's condition worsens

By Mohammed Siddique
December 09, 2009

Telangana Rashtra Samiti president and Member of Parliament K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday evening agreed to the resumption of IV fluids administration.

Rao's decision came after Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences Director Dr Dasari Prasad Rao told the media on Wednesday morning that new complications were arising due to his refusal to take the IV fluids and the antibiotic medicines.

"He is losing weight and fat," Dr Rao said, adding that there was an urgent need of inserting a central intravenous line for administration of fluids and medicine.

In the evening, Dr Ravi Raj told the media that Rao has changed his mind and agreed to take the IV fluids and medicine through the intravenous line.

Dr Prasad Rao told the media that because of lack of cooperation from the patient, his blood samples could not be sent to the laboratory in the morning and it made the assessment of his current condition difficult.
 
He reiterated that the TRS chief should immediately start taking the oral feed, failing which his condition will deteriorate further.

Dr Prasad Rao had earlier warned KCR's family members that if he does not break his fast immediately, his life was at risk. Doctors have said that KCR may slip into a coma at any moment. Dr. Rao said that KCR's health had reached a stage where he can suffer irreversible damage. The dire warning  sent the leaders of TRS and KCR's family members into a tizzy as all their efforts to persuade him to end the fast have failed.

TRS leaders, who were hoping for some kind of invitation from the central government for talks on Wednesday, were holding the meeting of their politburo and the state committee to find a way out from the deadlock.

Popular folk singer and pro-Maoist activist Ghaddar has made a public appeal to the people's movements to bring pressure on Rao to end his fast. "I am urging the leaders of TRS as well as the common public to convince KCR not to do what his enemy wants. The central government wants KCR to die hoping it will get rid of the problem. KCR should live and continue the struggle", Ghaddar said before going to meet KCR at the hospital.

Ghaddar said that it was futile to hope for an invitation from the central government for talks, "instead of an invitation they have sent paramilitary forces to Hyderabad to crush the movement", he said. He gave a call to the people of all the regions of the state to join the peaceful struggle for a separate Telangana as it was an issue of people's right and justice. He also wanted the Congress MLAs and MPs from Telangana to decide whether they were sided with the people or with the rulers.

As the state government had strengthen security in and around Hyderabad by deploying more than 10,000 policemen including the personnel of Central Reserve Police Force and Rapid Action Force, tension still prevailed in the Osmania University Campus in Hyderabad and Kakatiya University in Warangal where students were still staying in the hostels despite the orders to vacate their rooms.

Two thousand police personnel have been deployed at the Osmania University. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shaikh Mohammed Iqbal told the media on Wednesday morning that the police will persuade the students to go home. "The use of forced is not our purpose. We are here to do our duty of maintaining peace and law and order", he said.

However shortly after that police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protesting students from the scene, further raising tempers. A large number of women policemen were also deployed to deal with the girls students in the university.  

Hyderabad, meanwhile, has turned in to a fortress as police has set up 20 checkposts on all the entry points to prevent students from outside to enter the city for Thursday's siege of assembly. Meanwhile about 50 activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad tried to storm in to the state assembly premises on Thursday in support of Telangana demand but they were quickly rounded up and taken in to custody.

Earlier the Chief Minister K Rosaiah rejecting the demand for immediate passing of resolution said that it was not such a simple matter and the TRS should give time to the central government to come up with a solution. "The government is not asleep and it is alert to the situation", he said.

Rosaiah reminded the TRS that it was party to the decisions of the Business Advisory Committee of assembly which had said that the drought and flood problem would get the top priority for discussion. He said that the people expect the assembly to peacefully sit and discuss any problem and find a solution. The CM appealed to the people of all the regions of the state to maintain calm and peace and not to get angry.

 

Rosaiah asked the TRS whether it will be enough to pass a resolution when nothing came out of such resolutions on various issues in the past including reservation for women and categorization of Dalits.

 

Meanwhile the regional differences with in the Congress party came to the fore in the state assembly lobby when the government's chief whip Bhatti Vikramarka Rao and former minister R Damodar Reddy indulged in a wordy duel in the presence of the chief minister. While Damodar Reddy was seeking signature of Telangana Congress MLAs to a letter to addressed to Sonia Gandhi seeking her support to Telangana, Vikramarka objected to it.

 

On the other hand two ministers from Hyderabad D Nagendar and M Mukesh said they were writing a letter to Sonia Gandhi seeking status of Union Territory to Andhra Pradesh.

 

Image: Telangana Rashtriya Samiti chief K Chandrashekhar Rao at the NIMS in Hyderabad.


Photograph: Snaps India

Mohammed Siddique in Hyderabad

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