A 23-year-old ‘animator’, Sashikumar, working for a Self-Help Group in Muccharla village committed suicide on Friday night allegedly following pressure from the YSR Congress Party workers on him to quit the post so that their party candidate could be accommodated as an ‘animator’ for book-keeping and other works.
On Saturday, people in the village staged a dharna not allowing the body to be taken away for cremation till the government gave an assurance that one of the family members would be given a job.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) lent its support to the agitation and wanted Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to put in practice the statements he was giving in the Assembly on taking along all people irrespective of the political affiliation.
Following Mr. Jagan’s announcement that animators and resourceperons (in urban areas) would be paid by the government, there was a great demand for accommodating people close to the YSR Congress Party leaders in these positions (2,860 of them in rural and urban areas), alleged CPI(M) district secretary V. Rambhupal. Reacting to the suicide, he said that similar pressure was there on Asha workers (6,800) and field assistants (2,000) in MGNREGS implementation.
The body was taken for cremation only after some YSRCP leaders gave an assurance to the family members of the youth. There is always someone to talk to on phone No.100.
