Telangana fever at this point spread to primary and secondary schools in
the region. For instance, students from Shamshabad’s primary and secondary
schools, after completing the school prayer, boycotted their classes. They then
headed to a local Umda Nagar railway station, threw stones at the station
office, and damaged the windows. The school kids then proceeded to stop
traffic. They did not allow the vehicles to move until 2 p.m. in the afternoon,
causing a major traffic jam in the area. Police eventually decided to intervene
to remove the blockade. Students welcomed them by pelting stones. Police
retaliated by lathi-charging first, and then opened fire, injuring some students.
All the students injured were between 11 and 16, while two students, aged 12
and 14, were admitted to the hospital in critical condition.
As violence spread across the region, student union leaders met the
CM. The never-ending list of demands the students put forth continued to
grow. The new set of demands included raising the age limit for job applicants
from the Nizam Telangana region from 25 to 27 and a demand for a post-
graduate center at the Gandhi Medical College.
The following day, the student union came up with one more demand.
This time, the union leaders wanted to open new medical colleges in the
Telangana region to match the numbers in the coastal districts. The CM,
exasperated with the ever-growing list of demands and unabated violence,
announced the closure of all educational institutions until January 27, 1969.
In the interim, he did not waste any time implementing the all-party
agreement, as he feared the student union would take advantage of the issue.
On January 22, 1969, the state government issued a Government Order
(G.O.) to remove all the non-Mulkis from their current positions and set a
deadline of February 28, 1969. All the department heads were required to
certify by March 7 that all non-Mulkis had been removed. The government
threatened action against department heads who did not comply with the
G.O.
On the state government’s request, the comptroller and the auditor
general of India agreed to send a senior executive to determine the Telangana
balance of funds. The state government also announced that it was extending
Mulki rules to the Electricity Department, as the government funded it.
Student Ravindhranath of Khammam, the original source for the
inferno spreading across the region, decided to end his 15-day fast based on
the assurances the government and the opposition leaders gave. However, it
was already too late for him to stop what he started.
Readers might recall that there were two student unions: one demanding
protections for the Telangana region and another demanding a separate state.
The student union demanding protections for the Telangana region met the
CM. Brahmananda Reddy, not wanting to let the situation get completely out
of hand, conceded to the students’ demand for increasing the age limit of the
job applicants from Nizam Telangana to 27. With that assurance, this student
group announced that they were ending their strike.
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