HYDERABAD: A junior panchayat secretary (JPS) allegedly died by suicide during lunch hours in the gram panchayat office in Rangapur village in Khanapur mandal of Warangal district on Friday. The deceased was identified as B. Soni, 30, of Narsampet.
Junior panchayat secretaries have been on a strike across the state for the past 15 days, demanding regularisation of their jobs. The state government threatened to fire them and sent notices.
The woman JPS officer’s suicide has triggered protests by the striking employees, who are demanding ex gratia of '50 lakh to the bereaved family.
Soon after noticing her condition, Soni’s colleagues rushed her to a hospital in Narsampet, where the doctors declared her brought dead. All the protesting JPSs reached the hospital and raised slogans against BRS government. Following the complaint lodged by Soni’s father, police registered a case and are investigating.
State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said, “The suicide is nothing but blatant murder by the Telangana government,” soon after speaking to members of the bereaved family on phone. He assured them that the BJP would stand by them in this difficult period.
Sanjay called for a statewide candlelight protest against the government and to pray for Soni on Saturday evening.
Senior BJP leader Etala Rajendar alleged that the police were trying to sidetrack the junior panchayat secretary’s death and warned Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to immediately stop exerting stress on the agitating gram panchayat officials. “This government is taking their lives, her death is murder by the state government,” he said.
