Former sarpanches in Telangana staged a protest on Monday demanding that the state government clear their long-pending bills.

Police arrested a group of former sarpanches when they were heading to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s residence in Jubilee Hills to submit a memorandum on their demand to pay the bills to the tune of Rs 1300 crore.

After prayers at Peddamma temple, the group was trying to proceed to the Chief Minister’s residence but it was stopped by police. They were carrying banners and posters to demand that the government clear their pending bills.

The protestors said that during their tenure as sarpanches, they borrowed money to take up works like building graveyards, playgrounds, and dumping yards. The bills for these works undertaken since 2019 have not been cleared

Citing orders prohibiting the Assembly of five or more persons, the police arrested former sarpanches and shifted them to the police station.

The protestors criticised the government for not even allowing them to stage peaceful protests. Former sarpanches said that before the Assembly elections last year, the leaders of the opposition Congress party had promised that if they were voted to power, they would solve their problem.

Leaders of sarpanches Joint Action Committee (JAC) claimed that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Malli Bhatti Vikramarka had promised to clear the bills but after coming to power they were indifferent to their problem.

Meanwhile, the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has condemned the arrests of former sarpanches.

BRS leaders T. Harish Rao, V. Prashanth Reddy, Sanjay, K. Prabhakar Reddy and others staged a protest in support of former sarpanches.

The BRS leaders went to Bollarum Police Station to meet arrested former sarpanches. When police stopped the BRS leaders, they sat in front of the police station, raising slogans in support of former sarpanches.

BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao termed the arrests undemocratic. He said it was shameful that pending bills of former sarpanches were not cleared despite their demands for the last one year.

The former minister posted on X that arrests were going on regularly in the state. He alleged that the government is trying to suppress protests with the police.

KTR asked why the former sarpanches who were protesting peacefully were arrested. “Will the government not respond till the families of the sarpanches come on to the roads,” he asked.