As the part of their statewide protest and expressing solidarity with Manda Krishna Madiga, who is on a fast to press for the long pending demands of the differently-abled, about 300 disabled persons besieged the house of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at his native village of Nagiripalli on the outskirts of Kalikiri town here on Thursday.
The agitators from various places in the district led by Zilla Vikalangula Sankshema Sangam president Krishna Nayak and secretary Bhagyavathi marched to chief minister’s house where they staged a protest raising slogans against the government. However, none of the family members of Kiran Kumar Reddy were present. The domestic helps and few security personnel who were present preferred to just watch the protest.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhagyavathi criticised the government for not implementing quota for physically handicapped people and also for its failure to fill physically handicapped backlog posts in various departments.
She said that despite government’s assurance, the benefits like loans for self-employment, allotment of house sites and other benefits were not implemented to them while the demand for increasing pension amount is still pending.
Meanwhile, in Tirupati, a group of differently-abled under the banner of Vikalangula Hakkula Porata Samithi led by its SV University branch president and research scholar M Deenadayal staged a novel protest. They submitted a memorandum to the statues of national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi and Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu, on the varsity campus, as a mark of resentment and seeking intervention of the great leaders.
The demands of the samithi include increase in reservation for differently abled to 7 per cent, hike in monthly pension to Rs 2,000 and providing political reservation.