Know the background for Kothagudem strike

Hyderabad: This article is in continuation to the last article focusing on the Jai Telangana Movement (1969-70), which is one of the important topics for the government recruitment examinations. Kothagudem strike Gradually, dissatisfaction and distress grew in the Telangana region and it spread like wildfire within no time. The movement started in the beginning with […]

Hyderabad: This article is in continuation to the last article focusing on the Jai Telangana Movement (1969-70), which is one of the important topics for the government recruitment examinations.

Kothagudem strike

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Gradually, dissatisfaction and distress grew in the Telangana region and it spread like wildfire within no time. The movement started in the beginning with the motive of demanding protection of promised safeguards. Some organisations observed Telangana Safeguards Day on July 10, 1968. Several meetings were organised in several parts of Telangana on that day.

In one of the meetings held in Hyderabad, Mahadev Singh, a prominent labour leader, warned the Government that Telangana people would have no option left except demanding separate Statehood for Telangana if their legitimate urge for implementation of safeguards was not considered.

The beginnings of the Telangana movement can be traced to the Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) agitation over the injustices done to the local employees. When the power plant was established in the year 1960 wherein 1,400 people were employed. Out of these 1,400 employees, only 200 were from Telangana. After 8 years i.e., in 1968, as many as 175 workers who were the natives of Telangana were retrenched from service. This incident ignited the movement for the strict implementation of mulki rules.

Krishna, a daily wage labourer, sat on fast as a protest against the removal of workers. K Ramadasu took the initiative in organising the Satyagraha with help of local friends. He formed Telangana Pranteeya Samithi in Illendu in 1968, to fight against the illegal employment of Andhras and bogus mulki certificates.

The fight against the employment of non-locals in the KTPS was started and it gained support from local people. K Ramadasu organised a fast unto death Satyagraha by a college student Annabattula Ravindranath. It was supported by the Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers, unemployed youth, collieries workers, etc.

The fast began on January 8, 1969, in Khammam town and huge protest marches were organised, with slogans “Non Mulkies Go back”. There was a massive gathering of students from schools and colleges. Several pro-Telangana leaders like T Purushotham Rao, and Mucherla Satyanarana — president and chief secretary, respectively, of the Telangana Safeguards Agitation Association — have extended their support and a public meeting was held in support of Ravindranath’s fast.

The “spark of Khammam engulfed Telangana as Fire”, as the movement spread across towns and villages. The employees in Telangana region awoke to the reality that unless they demand with a united voice, the benefits promised in the Gentlemen’s Agreement, which was the basis for the formation of the Andhra Pradesh State, would not be implemented. The Khammam district employees took the initiative and toured the entire Telangana area to mobilise support for the safeguard movement.

Though he started his fast unto death programme demanding protection of Telangana Safeguards, his protest laid foundation for the next course of movement which culminated in the demand for separate Statehood for this region. His fast continued up to the first week of January 1969. As the days went by, his hunger strike drew crowds from nearby towns and districts like Warangal. Hundreds of students used to gather daily near the tent where Ravindranath sat on fast unto death.

Kaviraja Murthy, the Vice-Chairman of Khammam Municipality (he was a poet too) joined Ravindranath in the fast unto death and observed fast for some days as an expression of solidarity for the movement. Thus, the movement for protection of safeguards promised in the Gentlemen’s Agreement swelled as the Central Body of Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers union extended its support to the movement.

To be continued…