The Hindu : Piqued civic chief swallows sleeping pills

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 01, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Piqued civic chief swallows sleeping pills

By Our Staff Reporter

NELLORE, JAN. 31. Uproarious scenes were witnessed at a function held at Malaviya Nagar of Gudur town of Nellore district on Saturday evening, following an alleged attempt by the municipal chairperson, Koduru Kalpalatha, to swallow sleeping pills. She was later rushed to the local Government Hospital for treatment. The police also received a complaint in this regard.

Trouble started when the chairperson demanded to know the reason why she was not officially informed of/invited for the function where the Information Minister, S. Chandramohan Reddy, the former MLA, B. Durgaprasada Rao, and the MP, V. Rajeswaramma, were present. She contended that it was a humiliation for her and added that had she been informed she would have felt it as a privilege to accord proper welcome to the dignitaries. Following this there were some attempts to restrict her speech but she continued. In between there was slogan- shouting. Meanwhile, the chairperson took a small bottle -- said to contain sleeping pills -- and consumed a few pills. This resulted in a chaos and more slogan-shouting. She was immediately rushed to the hospital, where she was provided treatment. However, according to information, she was advised to continue treatment at Nellore. The protestors later burnt an effigy of the Information Minister.

The chairperson recently joined the Congress, which proved to be a jolt to the Telugu Desam Party. With this, the strained relations between her and local TDP leaders took a turn for the worse. Following Saturday's incident, prominent Congress leaders of Nellore, including the former MLAs, Anam Vivekananda Reddy and A. Ramanarayana Reddy, the former Housing Minister, Adala Prabhakara Reddy, who last week resigned from the TDP, and the ZP chairperson, Chenchal Babu, rushed to Gudur and expressed protest against the turn of the events and squarely blamed ruling party functionaries, particularly the Minister.

The Gudur unit of the Congress gave a call for `rasta roko' and dharna on Sunday in protest against `humiliation' to the chairperson.

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