Telangana VRAs call off strike as govt. assures them of addressing demands

HYDERABAD: The Telangana state village revenue assistants (VRAs) have called off their strike that was going on for the last 83 days after Chief Secretary (CS) Somesh Kumar assured them that the government was not against the VRAs' demands and would take steps to address their demands after the election code was lifted. The chief secretary advised all the VRAs to join duties immediately.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar met representatives of VRAs and leaders of the Telangana Revenue Employees Services Association (TRESA) at BRKR Bhavan on Wednesday night. On this occasion, the VRAs putforth their demands to Somesh Kumar such as providing pay-scale, service conditions, promotions, pay for the strike period, withdrawal of cases, declaration of strike period as special leave, compensation to families of VRAs who died during the strike, giving jobs to heirs, etc.

TRESA President Vanga Ravinder Reddy, General Secretary Gautam Kumar, CITU State General Secretary Paladugu Bhaskar, State Secretary Venkatesh, VRA JAC Secretary General Dade Mia, Convener D. Sayanna, and others participated in this meeting.

The president of TRESA Ravinder Reddy said that Chief Secretary assured them that the problems of VRAs would be solved and asserted that VRAs would attend duties from Thursday. The VRA JAC and other associations thanked Municipal and Urban Development Minister KT Ramarao and chief secretary Somesh Kumar for addressing their problems.