IT minister creates furore,supports lawyers quota stir

Hyderabad: Queering the pitch for the state government in resolving the strike by the Telangana advocates over their quota demand,IT minister from Nalgonda Komatireddy Venkat Reddy threw in his lot with the striking advocates and said their demand was genuine and should be conceded to. The IT ministers assertion to the media came minutes after the three-member cabinet sub-committee comprising J Geeta Reddy,M Venkataramana and P Ramachandra Reddy took pains to explain for the second time in 24 hours that that there was no such bias in the appointments to nominated posts as is being alleged.The committee was constituted to examine the alleged injustice meted out to lawyers from the Telangana region.

There is nothing wrong in asking for 42 per cent reservation.Their demands are justified.I express full solidarity with their struggle.However,lawyers should carry out their agitation in a peaceful manner.I will take the matter to the chief minister, said Venkat Reddy. This statement was enough for cabinet colleagues to vent their ire at him.One of the ministers who did not want to be quoted said,Here comes another headache. We are trying our best to defuse such uneasy situations by putting forth the governments version.First,the political party used students from the region to spread unrest,now they are misleading advocates with the same intention.How can he fall prey to the agenda put forth by a political party with vested interests Some of the ministers said they see a clear political conspiracy behind the whole agitation.If advocates from Telangana have doubts about poor representation,they should have pointed out the discrepancy.Instead,they are refusing to come to talks.How can they insist on ministers coming for talks.They must have a dialogue with the government to solve their problems, one minister said.
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T lawyers stir stalls HC proceedings


Most of the 15-20 High Court division bench courts could not begin work at the scheduled time of 10.30 am as the advocates stayed away on Thursday.However,Justices C V Nagarjuna Reddy,Nooty Ramamohana Rao,Seethapathy,G Raghuram and Ramesh Ranganathan went ahead with the proceedings and had to encounter protests from the striking advocates.The action then shifted to the court of Justice Nagarjuna Reddy where the Telangana and Seemandhra advocates nearly came to blows and uprooted the chairs nearby to hurl at each other.At this juncture,Justice T Meena Kumari entered Justice Nagarjuna Reddys court and sat on a dharna.Her contention was that she had called off the heavy police presence in the court on Wednesday on the assurance of the T-advocates that their agitation would be peaceful and that they had broken it by resorting to violence.This calmed the tense atmosphere and the protesters left the scene for Justice Nagarjun Reddy to continue the proceedings amidst heavy police protection.But it lasted just for 45 minutes as the T-advocates returned to continue their protests.With the work completely paralysed,five judges,Justices Meena Kumari,A Gopal Reddy,L Narasimha Reddy,R Subhash Reddy and Noushad Ali sat in Justice Nagarjuna Reddys court during lunch hour to bring the situation under control.The five judges then brought together the leaders of the two warring groups and brokered a peace.In another dramatic development,TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao made an appearance and expressed his solidarity with striking lawyers.He told them that the TRS was preparing a campaign to seek quota for the Telangana people and urged them not to give up the fast.
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AG misled govt on quota stir

Advocate general D V Sitarama Murthy has misled the state government on the employment statistics in the judiciary,claimed Sarasani Satyam Reddy,former president of the AP High Court Advocates Association on Thursday.We accept only those who were born here prior to 1956 and their descendants as Telanganites,he said.Satyam Reddy who is on an indefinite strike along with two other advocates - Jyothi Kiran and Vijay Kumar Goud - demanding 42% share in government legal appointments spoke to TOI from the hunger strike camp at the AGs office in the HC.Their fast entered the fourth day on Thursday.They also vowed to intensify their stir as the state is showing non-Telanganite officials under T quota. TNN
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(source-toi)