Chairman of the Telangana Joint Action Committee that spearheaded the movement for statehood to Telangana by bringing several political parties, employees bodies and people’s organisations, M. Kodandaram, has said that reorganisation of districts has not been done in tune with the people’s wishes.
“We strongly believe that people’s opinion was not taken into consideration in formation of new districts and the ongoing protests against merger of certain areas with some mandals/districts and are born out of such contentions,” Mr. Kondandaram said speaking newspersons after meeting Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma in the Secretariat on Monday.
Stating that he had brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary about the people’s disappointment over certain decision related to reorganisation of administrative units including mandals, revenue divisions and districts, the TJAC chief said head requested Mr. Rajiv Sharma to withdraw cases being booked against agitators with the demands on formation of new mandals or merger of some areas into certain district. He also blamed difference among the local elected representatives for the present situation.
“It’s unfortunate that suicides are continuing even after formation of Telangana State. A large number of youth had ended lives in support of statehood during the movement while some persons are committing suicide for formation of new mandals with their village as headquarters,” Mr. Kondandaram adding that it was an indication that people were not happy with what the government had done.
He pointed out that the government had given draft notification with certain proposals on formation of new districts but there was a huge difference in the final decision.
He suggested that instead of deploying police and imposing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC the government could sort out the issue through dialogue wherever there were specific demands. “It’s the responsibility of the government to prevent recurrence of such incidents”, he felt.
‘Allow people to meet CM’
Mr. Kondandaram reasoned that the protests were continuing due to dictatorial attitude of the government and the people should be given opportunity to meet the Chief Minister to represent their problems, at least periodically. Responsibility on the government is higher on this front since it had roots in the movement for separate statehood.
He stated that the TJAC would back the people protesting on new administrative units.
Prof. Kodandaram calls on Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma in the Secretariat