HYDERABAD: Twenty-four hours after chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke of a zero tolerance policy against the Telangana agitators, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao challenged the government to get as tough as it wanted but there would be no climbdown from the Sakala Janula Samme until a separate state was achieved."The people of Telangana will not rest till they achieve a separate state,’’ he thundered while addressing a dharna of Telangana government employees at Indira Park on Tuesday.The TRS chief ridiculed the state government’s threat to arrest protesters who block trains as part of the Telangana rail roko (now postponed to Oct. 15) and said, “Half of Telangana will be on the rail tracks. Let the police arrest them.Your jails will not be able to accommodate them.”He urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to test the Telangana people’s tolerance.“Please take steps to create a separate Telangana,” he urged the PM. “If the Centre does not react now, the UPA government will crumble very soon.”The dharna, billed as the Mahadharna, was organised by the Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee (TEJAC) to give a fillip to the Sakala Janula Samme.With the the government signalling tough tactics to break the strike, the demo acquired added importance and a large number of employees attended the event.Several leaders belong to TJAC, BJP, TRS and CPI-ML New Democracy addressed the meeting as Indira Park resounded with Jai Telangana slogans and songs. Telangana employees of the forest and excise department joined the strike wearing their uniforms.Responding to the state government move to initiate a dialogue with the striking employees, Chandrasekhar Rao sought to shore up the staff’s confidence in the strike.“Let no one think that the employees are worried about losing their salary or their jobs. Not a single employee, not even an attender will lose his job.The government does not dare to do anything against them,” he said.He promised them that if the new state came into being, each government employee would not only get the full salary for the strike period with interest and a month’s pay as bonus.The TRS chief did not spare the Telangana Congress leaders, dismissing them with a characterist jibe: “They are are the polishing the shoes of Kiran Kumar Reddy.’’ KCR dealt at length with the opposition of Seemandhra political leaders to the proposal to bifurcate the state.“They are trying to raise the bogey of the status of Hyderabad. I don’t understand what they will gain by giving union territory status to Hyderabad.What would they gain from it?” he asked.
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