Politician Y S Sharmila, who had launched her
Udyoga Deeksha hunger strike to demand that the Telangana government immediately start the process of recruitment for all the vacant government posts in the state, ended her fast today after 72 hours.
The leader broke her fast at about noon when the mother of a youngster from Gajwel, Koppu Raju (28), who hung himself in February this year after failing to find employment in the state, offered lemon juice to Sharmila. After accepting the juice, she first thanked all those who had supported her protest, and then handed over Rs 50,000 to Raju's mother.
Speaking to the media later, Sharmila lashed out at Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his government saying that the unemployed youth in the state were not being able to find employment in either the private or government sectors and were being driven to take their own lives as a result of the CM's failure to address the problem of rising unemployment.
"I do not know how the KCR government remains so unaffected by the suicides of so many youngsters. It has consistently failed to support the youth in Telangana by not generating jobs for them. The issue of rising joblessness goes largely unaddressed by the government that only extends a small amount of aid to the families of the deceased youth, and then forgets all about them. I just met the family of Koppu Raju, a native of Gajwel, who killed himself after he could no longer take the pressure of being unemployed, and could not stop myself from crying at their loss and the anguish that forced him to end his life. It is important that the TRS regime take concrete steps to curb such unfortunate incidents, and initiate the recruitment process for the
vacant posts in the state's government departments," she said.
"40 lakh unemployed youth of the state remain hopeless as there is no clarity from the government regarding the date of the issuance of job notifications in the state. Their unemployed status is a cause of great stress and anguish to them. When some of them, unfortunately, are pushed to take their own lives in the face of KCR's continued apathy, it is no longer suicide but state-sponsored murders," Sharmila added.
Though her hunger strike has come to an end, it is being said that her supporters will continue a relay hunger strike to pressurise the government to resolve the unemployment issue in the state.
Sharmila has been quite active in Telangana's political arena ever since she announced that she would
launch a party of her own in the state.