RTC Driver Who Attempted Suicide Passes Away

Depressed TSRTC driver Devireddy Srinivas Reddy, of Ramachandrapuram village in Nalakondapalli mandal of old Khammam district, who had attempted suicide by setting himself ablaze in Khammam on Saturday, breathed his last in the Apollo Hospital at Kanchanbagh on Sunday.

As the news spread, leaders of various political parties including CPI secretary Chada Venkata Reddy, CPM secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram and TJS President M Kodandaram, as also TSRTC JAC convener Ashwathama Reddy, visited the hospital, and held the State government responsible for Srinivas Reddy's death.

Speaking to mediapersons at the hospital, Ashwathama Reddy said that committing suicide was not the solution to the struggle launched by the TSRTC unions, and asked the striking staffers not to contemplate the extreme step. Accusing the ministers of provoking the striking TSRTC employees, he requested them to desist immediately.

Meanwhile, a large number of police personnel were deployed at the hospital as a precautionary measure, and started taking into custody the political leaders and workers, and RTC employees, assembled there who were staging protests blaming the TRS government for the driver's death.

The opposition leaders and the TSRTC JAC gave a call for a bandh in the old Khammam district for Monday.