The Telangana Regional Council and the state government estimated
that about 33 crore rupees (difference between income and expenditure) in
the Telangana balance of funds have accumulated since the state’s formation.
Responding to the legislators’ demand, the state government agreed to spend
the balance of funds in the early part of the fourth five-year plan.
An insignificant event in 1969 acted as a trigger for a massive
student uprising in Nizam Telangana. On January 8, 1969, a student named
Ravindranath started an indefinite hunger strike in Khammam demanding
protection for Telangana. It is unclear what motivated him, but this was mostly
a localized protest. Five days into the strike, students in Khammam ransacked
some government offices and burned the road transportation corporation
(RTC) buses. Students in Warangal also organized protests in solidarity with
their fellow students in Khammam.
On January 12, 1968, the Osmania University Student Union held an
extraordinary meeting to assess the situation in the districts where students
were protesting. The union expressed its profound dissatisfaction with the
political leadership from the region and demanded the resignation of MLAs
and nine cabinet ministers from the Telangana region. In addition, they laid
out a set of demands:
• Release the 70-crore balance of Telangana funds (it is unclear how
the 33 crores that even the Telangana Regional Council agreed as
the balance of funds became 70 crores)
• Create a separate five-year plan for Telangana including the
balance of funds from the region
• Complete the Pochampad Project on a priority basis (Pochampad
is the current Sriram Sagar Project
• Strictly implement Mulki rules
• Extend special protections to Telangana by another 10 years
Give Telangana graduates local jobs and transfer non-locals
immediately
• Establish teacher training institutes in all the Telangana districts
• Have the Andhra and Telangana regions bear expenses incurred
on all the government buildings in the capital city in a 2:1 ratio.
The students announced that, unless the government met these
demands, they intended to go on an indefinite strike starting January 15, 1969.
The student demands went up in number and size when compared to the
original demands of the all-party Telangana leaders.
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