YSRCP leader seeks action over lathi-charge on protesting employees in Vijayawada

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Anantapur district president Anantha Venkatarami Reddy has condemned the government’s alleged oppressive actions against the peaceful protest staged by the grama and ward secretariat employees seeking resolution of their grievances, in Vijayawada on Sunday.Speaking to the media on Monday, the senior leader said Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, after becoming Chief Minister in 2019, introduced the secretariat system with the objective of taking government welfare schemes to every household. However, Chief Minister N. Chandababu Naidu, who promised a salary of ₹10,000 to the volunteers during the election campaign, removed the volunteer system soon after taking charge, Mr Venkatarami Reddy claimed. The secretariat employees, on the other hand, have been subjected to mental distress by imposing additional workload since the past two-and-half years,” he alleged.The YSRCP leader said that when the secretariat employees called for a peaceful protest in Vijayawada to seek resolution to their grievances, higher officials across all districts resorted to intimidation. However, the employees marched forward in protest in spite of the intimidations.“Why did the police resort to a lathi-charge against employees who were protesting peacefully? How could they detain the employees, including women, in police stations?” he questioned.Claiming that vendetta politics was being pursued against leaders of employee unions that were raising their voice, Mr. Venkatarami Reddy demanded for an inquiry and action against those responsible for the lathi-charge on the employees in Vijayawada.Mr. Venkatarami Reddy also alleged that the process of delimiting divisions and identifying reservations for SC, ST, BC, and women in Anantapur Municipal Corporation (AMC) was carried out in an irrational manner.“While increasing the number of divisions from 50 to 62, the division boundaries should have been demarcated in proportion to the population. This was not done at the ground level. It was expected that the division delimitation would be an administrative exercise, but ruling party leaders manipulated it to suit their own interests. How can some divisions have 2,000 votes while others have 5,000?” he quest. Published - September 28, 2026 07:08 pm IST