BRS MLA held, stopped from meeting student leader on hunger strike

Hyderabad, July 1: Hyderabad Police on Monday arrested BRS MLA P. Rajeshwar Reddy and other leaders when they reached Gandhi Hospital to meet a student leader, who is on a hunger strike demanding the state government to fulfil its assurances to the unemployed over job recruitments.

Tension prevailed at Gandhi Hospital as BRS leaders and members of various student groups reached there to meet Motilal Naik, the leader of Osmania University Joint Action Committee (JAC) who has been on hunger strike for the last eight days.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Rajeshwar Reddy, A. Rakesh Reddy and other leaders were arrested by the police. They were shifted to various police stations.

Rajeshwar Reddy was talking to media persons when police forcibly took him, Rakesh Reddy and others into custody and whisked them away in police vehicles.

The BRS leaders took strong exception to the police action and asked if this was the people’s rule of the Congress government. The protestors raised slogans against the government and the police.

Meanwhile, a group of student leaders tried to barge into the hospital but were stopped and arrested by the police.

Unemployed youth and job aspirants have been gathering at the hospital for the last couple of days in solidarity with Naik.

Leaders of BRS and BJP have also met Naik during the last couple of days to support his demands.

BRS leader and former minister T. Harish Rao had called on Naik on Sunday and appealed to him to end the strike.

The BRS leader reminded the Congress party of its promise to provide two lakh jobs in the first year after coming to power and asked why it failed to issue even one notification for recruitment even after seven months.

Meanwhile, students also held protests at Osmania University in support of Motilal Naik. They staged a sit-in at Arts College.

They alleged that the government betrayed them after making several promises including increasing Group – II and III posts during the Assembly elections.

They demanded the Congress government to immediately fulfil its poll promises including selection of candidates for Group – I Main exam in 1:100 ratio and increasing Group -I and II posts.

They want the government to keep the promise of adding 2,000 jobs to Group-2 and 3,000 jobs to Group-3 and ensure a two-month gap between exams.

The unemployed and students are demanding the identification of vacant posts and the release of a job calendar regularly.

They also wanted the state government to issue a mega DSC notification to appoint 25,000 teachers.