PM need not take permission to visit Telangana: Ponguleti

All India Congress Committee secretary and MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar on Friday said that there was no need for Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to take anybody’s permission to visit Telangana region.

Talking to media persons here, Sudhakar condemned the statements of Bharatiya Janata Party state president G Kishen Reddy and Telangana Political Joint Action Committee chairman Kodandaram that Prime Minister should not visit Telangana without making his stand clear on the statehood issue.

Describing their statements as ‘unwarranted and unfortunate’, he said that anybody could visit any place in the country and there was no need for taking permission from anybody in this regard.

“The Constitution of India has provided freedom to all citizens to visit any place in the country and no one can raise objection,” he pointed out.

Stressing that the Centre would take a ‘favourable decision’ on Telangana issue, he said that leaders of the region should observe restraint till the emergence of clear decision.

He demanded that the government should order probe against Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu for his involvement in Emaar scam.

He took a serious note of Y S R Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy seeking narco test on CBI Joint Director Lakshminarayana instead of Jagathi Publications vice-chairman Vijay Sai Reddy. He asked as to why Jagan Mohan Reddy, who claimed he was ready for any kind of probe, was afraid of a CBI inquiry. Instead of facing the probe boldly, he said Jagan was trying to damage the image of the prime probing agency by issuing baseless statements against it.