Ponnala hit with tomatoes, eggs

A group of students of the Kakatiya University on Monday obstructed Minister of Information and Technology Ponnala Lakshmaiah’s convoy and pelted it with rotten tomatoes and eggs.

The ‘unwelcome’ welcome to Mr Lakshmaiah, who was on his way to the town to offer tributes to noted social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule on the occasion of his 185th birth anniversary, was part of the students’ sustained demands that the IT Minister resigns from the Cabinet to build pressure on the Centre to introduce a Bill in favour of a separate Telangana state.

According to sources, the students had learnt that Mr Lakshmaiah would be in town to offer tributes to the social reformer and they had got busy since early Monday morning, buying rotten tomatoes from the vegetable shops. The students also managed to lay their hands on a sizeable number of eggs, sources say.

The police however stepped in to spoil the students’ ‘party’, and used their batons to disperse them, not before the Minister’s car looked like it had run into a vegetable/egg shop.

Some of the students were also taken into custody and shifted to a police station. As for Mr Lakshmaiah, he proceeded to take part in the scheduled function. Earlier, the students had also blockaded a convoy of TDP leader Gundu Sudha Rani.