NALGONDA: After a 12-month gap and at a time when the municipal elections are around the corner, the natives of Ghattuppal and surrounding villages have decided to resume protests raising their long-pending demand for the formation of a new Ghattuppal mandal.The demand has been long-pending before the State government ever since the reorganisation of districts in 2016 that was carried out after the formation of Telangana in 2014.
The Ghattuppal villagers had even organised a relay hunger strike that continued for around 782 days till December 2018. Around that time, when the Assembly elections were on the doorstep, TRS working president KT Rama Rao came forward and promised the Ghattuppal Mandal Sadhana Samithi leaders, under whose aegis the strike was being conducted, that the pink party would address the issue soon and gave them his word that the authorities will form the new mandal, after which the protestors called off their strike.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won the Assembly elections that followed with thumping majority and came to power in the State for the second time. However, the government and the pink party turned a blind eye to the demand of Ghattuppal villagers after the elections, and have not taken any steps in this regard till now.
The Samithi leaders told Express that MLA K Rajagopal Reddy has promised them that he will arrange a meeting between the villagers and CM in December itslef. “If KCR does not give a proper word, we will resume protests from January 1,” they said.