Hyderabad, July 2: Telangana unemployed Joint Action Committee (JAC) leader Motilal Naik on Tuesday called off his indefinite hunger strike but vowed to intensify the protest for recruitments. The JAC leader ended the hunger strike on the ninth day at Gandhi Hospital, which was witnessing a tense situation for the last couple of days due to visits by leaders of student groups and political parties to show solidarity with him.
Naik thanked all those who supported his hunger strike. He vowed to intensify the protest in other forms from Wednesday. He made it clear that the JAC would continue the strike till the state government accepts their demands. Naik recalled that when Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader KC Rao observed a hunger strike for nine days, the Centre accepted the demand for creation of Telangana state but even after his nine-day hunger strike, the government has not increased even one post for recruitments.
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“This is the approach of this government. It did not bother to check what happened to me and what our demands were,” he said.“The demands with which I undertook the hunger strike are nothing but the promises made by the Congress party in its election manifesto,” he said. Naik said whenever Congress leaders were reminded of their promises, they asked the unemployed to wait, citing the Model Code of Conduct for MLC elections and later Lok Sabha elections. He alleged that after elections the government failed to release the job calendar and issue notifications for recruitment exams.
He said their main demands were allowing 100 candidates for one post under Group I main exam, increasing Group II posts by 2,000 and Group III posts by 3,000. The JAC leader also wanted the state government to issue a mega DSC notification to appoint 25,000 teachers.“The Congress promised 2 lakh jobs in the first year. What we are demanding is not even 30,000. No one believes their promise of 2 lakh jobs and unemployment allowance,” he said.
Opposition BRS and BJP have supported Naik’s hunger strike and the ongoing protests by the unemployed. BRS leader and former minister T. Harish Rao had called on Naik at the hospital on June 30 and appealed to him to end the hunger strike. BRS MLA P. Rajeshwar Reddy and some other leaders were detained by the police on Monday when they reached Gandhi Hospital to show solidarity with Naik.
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