Siddipet Collector M Manu Chowdary has suspended as many as 106 government employees who allegedly attended a meeting conducted by BRS candidate P Venkatrami Reddy on March 7 in Siddipet, Telangana.
The meeting was reportedly organised by former IAS officer and present MLC P Venkatarami Reddy, who is the BRS candidate for the Medak parliamentary constituency. Venkatarami Reddy is also the former Collector of Siddipet district. He hit the headlines in 2021 for touching then chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's feet at an official event. A few months later in November 2021, he left and joined BRS.
The Collector took action after BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao lodged a complaint with the State Election Commission alleging that these employees had violated the Model Code of Conduct.
The Election Commission then directed collector to take action. Following which collector M Manu Chowdary suspended them after an inquiry.
A flying squad team visited the venue after Raghunandan Rao's complaint and found 10-15 persons still in the meeting. It collected the CCTV footage from the management and found that BRS organised the meeting without obtaining permission from Assistant Returning Officer, Siddipet. A police complaint was also lodged against two leaders of BRS.
The 106 employees work in different wings of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). While 38 of them were working in the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), the remaining 68 were working in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
