Kishan pins blame on KCR for home guard’s suicide bid

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy on Thursday expressed shock over the suicide attempt of home guard Ravinder (35), who served for the past 17 years.

He blamed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao as solely responsible for the incident. The State BJP chief recalled the CM’s promise in the Assembly in 2017 that to regularise services of home guards. However, he did not fulfil it and remained unavailable for home guards to meet him and express their concerns.

Reddy said no relief was provided to home guards even after going round houses of the minister for the past two months; home guards are not getting their salaries properly. Besides, they have to face insults and humiliations in services.

He pointed out that the 16,000 home guards are receiving only Rs 27,000 as salary;. “Rs 900 is being cut from their salaries if they fail to report to duty even for a day due to any reason. It shows the KCR government is treating home guards as daily wage labour.

The Union minister stated that Rs 20,000 was promised to home guards as yearly allowance/uniform allowance. Those who served for 40 years were felicitated and given a farewell on superannuation. However, the home guards' demand for a Rs 10 lakh retirement benefit has not been conceded.

‘The government is utilising their services and leaving them on roads on retirement, Reddy said criticising it for ignoring ‘justified’ demand of home guards like accidental death insurance, compassionate appointments, job security and health cards. He demanded the CM to honour his promise made in the Assembly.

Reddy recalled how he had also staged protests and fought for resolving the problems faced by home guards.

Assuring the party’s support to their ‘just’ demands, he stressed taking extreme steps won’t solve problems and asked home guards not to lose confidence.