Rejecting the appeal made by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) has decided to go ahead with its proposed ‘Telangana March’ on September 30 with Tank Bund and Necklace Road as focal points.
The decision on the destination of the march demanding separate Telangana was taken at the steering committee meeting of JAC, presided by M. Kodandaram, on Monday afternoon.
Significantly, the ‘Million March’ programme of TRS and JAC which had turned violent was on the same road with the participants vandalising over a dozen statues of eminent Telugu personalities on March 10 last year.
Mr. Kodandaram assured media persons after the meeting that the march would be peaceful unlike last time and wanted the government not to set up obstacles to it.
He said the JAC will not wait for permission from the government although a formal letter would be sent to authorities by way of intimation.
The march will be held at any cost irrespective of permission, to display the ambition of people for Telangana. There will be platforms for artistes, poets and painters to showcase their talent on the suffering of Telangana in integrated State, Mr. Kodandaram said.
He warned Ministers and MLAs from Telangana that September 30 was also the deadline for them to tender resignations to their posts and join an intensified agitation to be launched that day. They must decide for themselves whether they would join the struggle or remain independent of the people who elected them, he said.
Earlier, the Students Joint Action Committee of Osmania University met Mr. Kodandaram and other leaders to convey postponement of ‘Students March’ from September 27 to September 30. The decision was taken to avoid confusion in the minds of students and integrate the programme with that of JAC, student leaders Pidamarthi Ravi and Rajaram Yadav said. They denied rift in the student body.
The Telangana Gazetted Officers Union president V. Srinivas Goud said a programme of the government staff over the issue would be finalised on Tuesday.
