The historic ‘Sakala Janula Samme’, the general strike by all employees in the state, including the state government employees, teachers, students and workers, that paralysed the state administration for over 50 days during the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state in 2012, was a sensational success.
The agitation showed the intensity of the movement that finally resulted in the formation of Telangana state in 2014.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and present chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who capitalised on the Sakala Janula Sammme is very much aware of the power of the agitation.
Now, there are signs of this Sakala Janula Samme getting revived once again, following the adamant attitude of the KCR government in dealing with the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees’ strike.
There is a possibility of the Telangana government employees and staff of all the corporations, including the Singareni workers, joining the strike in solidarity with the RTC employees.
Already, there is a growing discontent among the state government for not getting interim relief, which is likely to be delayed by another six months.
Similarly, the village revenue officers (VROs) and other department staff are agitated over the proposal to do away with the revenue system.
At the same time, the employees are angry with KCR making insulting comments comparing them a dog’s tail.
Telangana Jana Samithi president M Kodandaram, who was the chairman of Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) in the past and led the Sakala Janula Samme from the front is back in the action, to spearhead the latest agitation.
He is likely to give a call for Telangana bandh to highlight the demands of the agitating RTC workers.
The RTC employees are planning to intensify their agitation from October 15, after people who had gone to faraway places for Dusshera vacation return to their places. #KhabarLive