NEW DELHI: The announcement of TRS president K. Chandra Sekhar Rao that he would provide “issue-based support” to the TDP and was not averse to joining hands with N. Chandrababu Naidu, subject to certain conditions, “is the biggest joke of 2008” claims the newly launched Nava Telengana Praja Party (NTPP).
In fact the development could be [...]
Even as the Telangana issue continues to simmer, suspected Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) activists beat up a dozen people who had come for an interview at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd’s Ramachandrapuram unit on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Medak district SP V C Sajjanar said that six persons were arrested in connection with the attack. They were later remanded in judicial custody.
TRS has been crying shrill about ‘outsiders’ taking jobs that were meant for locals and therefore, demanding the creation of a Telangana state to undo this injustice.
Sajjanar said trouble started after BHEL put out the list of candidates for the interview.
Locals and some BHEL employees went on a protest, saying the list was full of outsiders. Soon members of the local unit of Telangana Joint Action Committee joined the protest.
With the situation threatening to get out of control, the BHEL management cancelled the interviews and asked applicants to return to their homes. This, however, did not assuage the anger of the activists, who beat up few of the applicants, which included persons from Kerala,
Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh.
“They threatened to kill me if I came back for interview at a later date. I will not come back and look for jobs elsewhere,” said Ramana Murthy, an applicant from coastal Andhra.
Applicants from Tamil Nadu lodged a complaint with the Chennai police on their return.
