VIJAYAWADA: High drama continued for several hours in Gollapudi village here on Wednesday when Telugu Desam party district president and Mylavaram MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and minister for secondary education K Parthasarathi were set to meet each other for an open debate over irregularities in sand quarrying in the district.A fortnight ago, Devineni had alleged the minister has a hand in illegal sand quarrying in the district and challenged him to an open debate on the issue. Furious over the allegation of the TDP MLA, Parthasarathi accepted his challenge for the debate to be held at Gollapudi Panchayat office on Wednesday.As per the schedule, Parthasarathi reached the panchayat office in the morning along with his followers in a rally. But trouble began when police stopped Devineni and his followers while they were going to the venue of the debate. Protesting against the “partisan” attitude of the police, the TDP MLA squatted on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad national highway and along with his followers staged a rasta roko. Police then took Devineni and other TDP activists into custody and shifted them to the One Town police station. Meanwhile, the commissioner of police requested Parthasarathy over phone to ask his followers to leave as it could lead to a breach of law and order. But the minister was insistent and said that the open debate had been announced a fortnight ago and holds not meaning without the presence of the public.
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