Hyderabad, February 10: The Telangana political Joint Action Committee (JAC), which has been keeping a low profile awaiting announcement of the terms of reference of the Srikrishna Committee, has decided not to wait for them anymore but to intensify the agitation.
Though the deadline for MLAs to resign expired yesterday, the JAC has not insisted on the legislators to quit since it is expecting the terms of reference of the Srikrishna panel to be announced. Now that it feels that the Centre is dragging its feet, the JAC has decided to intensify agitation.
According to its convener M Kodandaram, the budget session of the Assembly will not take place regardless of whether the terms of reference are announced or not. Though he did not elaborate on how the Telagnana MLAs would not make the Assembly function, it is understood that all of them will either boycott the session or disrupt the proceedings causing embarrassment to Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
The JAC will finetune its strategy to keep the heat on the Centre in view of the steering committee’s meeting on Feb 11. It has decided to activate its units in all the Telangana districts by handing out a programme of protests. On Feb 10 and 11 people will participate in candlelight processions with an appeal to the youth not to lay down their lives for the cause of Telangana but stay alive and fight for it. There will be a conference of representatives of the JAC district units in Hyderabad on Feb 14.
According to Kodanda Ram, as Shivaratri falls on Feb 12, the JAC has appealed to people in all the Telangana districts to pray to Lord Shiva to ensure creation of Telangana as they do jagaran. The JAC also appealed to Muslims to offer prayers in mosques on the same day, it being a Friday, and Christians in churches on Feb 14, a Sunday.
——-Agencies