Rachabanda programme face protests from Telangana supporters

Hyderabad, Jan 25 (PTI) The ''Rachabanda'' (villagejunction) mass-contact programme of the Andhra Pradeshgovernment faced protests from TRS and other Telanganasupporters for the second day today.

The Telangana supporters held protests at variousplaces in Telangana like Nalgonda, Warangal, Karimnagar,Nizamabad among others.

State Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy, CivilSupplies Minister D Sridhar Babu and other Congress publicrepresentatives had to face the wrath of the agitators.

Incidents like chairs being thrown away, hurling ofstones and eggs, blocking the way of the leaders and officialsby the TRS activists and others were reported from severalplaces in the region.

Alleging that the ''Rachabanda'' programme is an attemptto dilute the separate Telangana agitation, TRS president KChandrasekhar Rao has called for its boycott and asked peopleto drive away Congress MLAs and MPs who attend the programme.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy tookpart in the programme in East Godavari and Visakhapatnamdistricts in coastal Andhra today.

At Tetagunta village in East Godavari district, somewomen who applied for the teachers'' recruitment posts pleadedwith the Chief Minister for early recruitment.

''Rachabanda'' aims at checking whether the benefits ofwelfare schemes like old age pensions, housing for poorpeople, ration cards reached the targeted sections or not andto take corrective measures.

The programme was launched yesterday and it willcontinue till February 12. .

''Rachabanda'', a brain child of late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was supposed to have been launched by him on September2, 2009. But he died in the tragic plane crash on that daywhile he was on the way to Chittoor district to inaugurate thescheme.

Meanwhile, an official release said the programme wasconducted in an orderly manner in all areas of the stateexcept in a few places in Telangana.

The Chief Minister will be participating in''Rachabanda'' programme in Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar districtson January 27th January, it said.