HYDERABAD: Home Guards continued to protest outside a hospital here, demanding justice for their colleague Nagam Ravinder, who had attempted suicide due to alleged harassment from superiors on salary issues and other demands.
Union minister and Telangana BJP chief G. Kishan Reddy met Ravinder’s family and protesting Home Guards and expressed solidarity with them.
Sources confirmed that Ravinder continued to be on life support.
Meanwhile, the police moved the court to seek certified copies of his dying declaration. “Based on the contents of the dying declaration, the investigation will proceed,” said a senior police official.
However, no official from the Home Guards or city police reached out to the family, it was learned.
Kishan Reddy, extending support to the protesters, said to them: “I will take the lead for the realization of the rights of the Home Guards. Please do not take such extreme steps and put your families in more (peril). Let’s fight and get our rights.”
Addressing the media, he said that Home Guards were exploited and not given minimum rights. “They are forced to work for 16 hours and even 24 hours, against the eight-hour policy. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has made several promises to the Home Guards, but they are not fulfilled,” he said.
Demanding a thorough probe into Ravinder’s suicide attempt and all measures to revive him, Kishan Reddy also sought for the steps to be taken to improve the system of home guards. He also assured to fulfilment of all welfare measures for home guards after their party came to power in Telangana.
