Mahbubnagar: After RTC workers, scribes too get support from Opposition parties

Mahbubnagar: Expressing their displeasure at the way the State government was dealing with the issues of journalists, the members of Telangana Union of Working Journalists Union (TUWJ-IJU), who gathered in large numbers, took out a rally from the Roads and Buildings guest house to the district collectorate on Monday and tried to lay siege to the Collectorate.

Later, the journalist union members along with scribes from various media houses staged a protest in front of the Revenue Meeting Hall and gave a representation to Joint Collector K Swarnalatha and demanded the government to resolve the issues of journalists at the earliest.

The agitating journalists said that even though six years have gone past, the TRS government has miserably failed in fulfilling the promises it made to the journalists. Instead of support and providing facilities like health cards, accreditation cards and housing sites, the government has issued GO No 239, to bar the journalists working at mandal and village-levels to be out of preview of these benefits.

"The government has completely ignored the journalists. Despite of our repeated requests and representations, the government is not heeding to our pleas. Though it has issued health cards to a few journalists, these have just become ornamental and they are not valid in any of the corporate hospitals. We are demanding the government fulfil all the promises made to the journalists, or else we will be forced to intensify our protest," said Dandu Dattendra, president of TUWJ-IJU, Mahbubnagar.

The agitating journalists got support from the leaders of both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. Both the parties expressed their support towards the journalists and said that the government had fooled the journalists with false promises. "The BJP is with the journalists. Their demands of accreditation to all journalists and healthcards are justified. The TRS government has promised double bedroom houses to journalists, but till date not a single journalist got the benefit. The government cannot escape from its responsibilities and we will support their cause until they get justice," said Padmaja Reddy, BJP district president, while expressing her support to the agitating journalists.

The congress party members from the district also supported the journalists cause. District Congress leader Sanjiv Mudiraj, NP Venkatesh, Katta Ravi Kishan Reddy and others supported the journalists' agitation.