The Telangana Political Joint Action Committee has demanded that all sunstroke deaths be treated as deaths due to natural calamity and ex gratia paid to the families of the victims as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court.
The TJAC, which met here on Friday under the chairmanship of its chairman M Kodandaram, decided to meet the State Human Rights Commission and also take a legal recourse on the deaths occurring due to sunstroke.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Kodandaram said the meteorological department was not declaring the actual temperature recorded in Telangana areas, especially in Khammam, Warangal and Karimnagar districts.
“As per our information, the actual temperature in some of the areas in Telangana region is ranging between 51 and 55 degrees Celsius but the government is not saying so,” he alleged.
If the government accepted that the temperature was more than 50 degrees, it had to water the roads and declare a local holiday and should also take several other measures, Kodandaram explained. To avoid all these measures, the government was not declaring the actual temperature recorded in the Telangana region, he alleged.
Sunstroke deaths should be treated as deaths due to natural calamity, he demanded and requested Marri Sasidhar Reddy, vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Authority, to look into the sunstroke deaths in Telangana region.
Kodandaram announced that the TJAC would consult Advocates JAC and launch a legal battle on sunstroke deaths and see that ex gratia was paid to the families of the victims.
Students who committed suicide for Telangana mentioned the names of ministers and other political leaders in their dying declarations, Kodandaram alleged and demanded that those ministers and leaders be booked for abetting suicides.
Telangana Gazetted Officers Association president V Srinivas Goud demanded unconditional withdrawal of all cases registered against government employees and students.
As the TJAC was preparing to organise Chalo Assembly, police were registering fresh cases against students and employees, he alleged. In the cases registered during the Million March, the charge-sheets mentioned “others” as accused and fresh names were now being included in that category.
“No Telanganite can be cowed down by cases and he or she will fight for the statehood cause in a peaceful manner,” he said and alleged that police were registering cases against Telangana agitators branding them as Maoists. Once a new state was formed, all the cases against agitators would be withdrawn by a single order, Goud said.
Apart from foisting cases, intelligence officers were following Telangana leaders, tapping their telephones and even blackmailing them, Goud said and announced that TJAC would call on the governor, home secretary and the DGP to lodge a complaint with them on the cases against agitators.
The TJAC will meet again on May 29 to chalk out an action plan for its Chalo Assembly.