'JAC ready to review reopening of schools'

Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) chairman M. Kodandaram has said that the panel was prepared to review on Saturday the question of reopening of schools in the region.

He, however, took a strong view of the campaign against the JAC that it was disrupting the studies of children and said the schools in effect had lost only seven working days since the commencement of the general strike on September 13. The loss was not even one day for many of the schools as they did not close, Mr. Kodandaram said at a meeting of Osmania Graduates Association in support of the strike.

Elaborating further, he said the schools were shut due to the strike from September 19 to 26. After that, the government announced the Dasara vacation till October 9. Most of the schools functioned in defiance of the JAC's call since then.

Mr. Kodandaram targeted Congress MLA M. Shashidhar Reddy and other Telangana leaders for leading the campaign against the JAC and wanted to know the efforts they had made to strengthen educational opportunities in the region. They had only helped the government suppress the agitation through their claims. The JAC chairman said the government could remove him and the striking employees from service but this will not to be a deterrent to them in continuing the statehood movement till a separate State was formed. (Mr. Kodandaram is a professor of Osmania University.) “If it is a crime to fight for democracy, then we are criminals,” he remarked.

Cites Goud's case

Saying that it was not easy to remove them from service, Mr. Kodandaram said the whole of Telangana would protest if this happens. He mentioned in this context the threat by the government to terminate the services of Telangana employees JAC chairman K. Swamy Goud who was employed in the Institute of Preventive Medicine. The graduates association president P. Harinath Reddy and ex-Mayor N. Laxminarayana also spoke.