The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : `YSR Uncle! Our future is in your hands'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 01, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`YSR Uncle! Our future is in your hands'

Staff Reporter

Children of Housing Board employees stage novel protest

Desperate plea: A child of an employee of the Andhra Pradesh Housing Baord being offered water during a dharna in the city on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD: There was no way `lathis' could swing. No khaki-clad policemen could disperse this bunch of protesters.

They assembled in front of Gruhakalpa, the office of the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board (APHB) on Tuesday, staged a dharna and shouted slogans as they marched around the building. They made every onlooker cluck-cluck their tongues in sympathy. Their slogan: "CM Uncle! Please give our dads their jobs back so our education can continue. Our future is in your hands. Uncle Please!" Kavya, Meena, Monica, Swetha, Priya, Srinath... The list was endless. They were among 100 children of the 487 employees including those on the non muster roll (NMR) of the APHB, to stage a novel four-hour protest. These employees were served notices to leave about a year ago by the then Vice-Chairman, S.N. Mohanty. Their wards are now demanding withdrawal of these notices. The protest was organised by the APHB Employees and NMR Union affiliated to the Centre for Indian Trade Unions. The union's honorary president, J. Venkatesh, the president, K. Govardhan Reddy, and the general secretary, P. Malla Reddy, said they hit upon this idea after their repeated protests failed to yield results. "The Chief Minister promised justice and asked the Finance Minister, K. Rosaiah, to look into the matter," they regretted.

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