PROTEST IS ON: An engineering graduate, who was on an indefinite fast in front of the Deputy Commissioner's Office for the past five days, being shifted by the police to the Government Hospital in Gulbarga on Friday.

GULBARGA: The unemployed engineering graduates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, who have been on an indefinite fast for the past five days demanding that the State Government fill up all backlog vacancies in the Public Works and Irrigation departments, have rejected the appeal made by Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh to end their protest. They however agreed to send their representatives for talks convened by the Chief Minister in Bangalore on January 16.

Deputy Commissioner Anjum Parvez and Superintendent of Police K. Ramachandra Rao, who visited the pandal where the engineering graduates were on fast, delivered the letter by the Special Officer to the Chief Minister inviting them for talks in Bangalore on January 16. The engineering graduates were urged to give up their agitation and participate in the talks to find a solution.

The protesters told the Deputy Commissioner that they will continue their indefinite fast till their demands are conceded to by the Government. However, they will send their representatives including the National Vice President of the Republican Party Shivaram Moga, General Secretary of the RPI (Atwale) A.B. Hosmani and representatives of the engineering graduates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes to participate in the meeting convened by the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, the police, on the advice of doctors, forcibly removed three more engineers Udaykumar Kelgikar, Umakant Koodi, and Shashikant Bhagodi on Friday to the government hospital as their condition worsened. The condition of another protester, Harshapriya Sedamkar, is stable.

Their demands include filling up of 418 backlog posts of Assistant and Junior Engineers in the Public Works and Irrigation departments, filling up of backlog vacancies in the Government Engineering, aided engineering and polytechnics, filling up of backlog posts in the Transport and other Government departments.

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