Telangana martyrs' list is incomplete, erroneous: Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad, Oct 28 (INN): Deputy CLP leader in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has slammed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for the errors in the list of Telangana martyrs.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party office here on Tuesday, Shabbir Ali alleged that the list of Telangana martyrs prepared by the government was incomplete and full of errors. He was referring to the GO Ms No 36 Dated 27.10.2104 issued by Revenue Department to provide Rs 10 lakh as monetary assistance to each of the bereaved families who have sacrificed their lives for achieving statehood for Telangana.

'While I would like to appreciate that the State Government has sanctioned Rs 10 lakh each to the families of Telangana martyrs, I regret to say that only 459 such families were covered under the scheme,' he said in an open letter written to the Chief Minister.

Shabbir Ali reminded that the Chief Minister, on multiple occasions, have claimed that more than 2,000 persons have sacrificed their lives for the cause of Telangana. The same statement was reiterated by the Chief Minister on the floor of the State Legislative Assembly. The cabinet ministers and even Swamy Goud, present chairman of Legislative Council, went on record to say that there were more than 2,000 martyrs of Telangana.

'When more than 2,000 people have sacrificed their lives for the statehood cause, why is it so that the government is paying compensation to only 459 families? Why the District Collectors were able to identify and furnish information about only 459 cases while ignoring almost two-third of other martyrs?' he asked while asking KCR to issue a clarification in this regard.

Shabbir Ali also pointed out that there were blatant errors in the list of martyrs released by the State Government. 'The officials did not show any seriousness in preparing the list of martyrs. At one side, they left out a majority of martyrs and on the other they did not bother to collect the proper addresses of identified martyrs' families. For instance, of 11 martyrs of Hyderabad district, the officials wrote "NA" which stands for (Not Available) for the addresses of five martyrs. They include K Venugopal Reddy, whose funeral was attended by hundreds of people.

Similarly, "NA" is written against the names of 17 out of 91 martyrs of Warangal district.

Further, he said several cases of suicide for Telangana, which were prominent reportedly in the mainstream media, were left out. Citing some instances, he said the deaths of Sheik Anwar (29) of Nalgonda, S Srikanth (23) of Hyderabad, K Uppalaiah (30) and Sambari Navin (18) of Warangal districts that occurred between February 2010 and April 2012 and widely reported by media were not included in the list of martyrs.

Demanding stern action against the officials who erred in preparing the list of Telangana martyrs, Shabbir Ali asked KCR to tender an apology for the errors. 'You've occupied the seat of Chief Minister due to the sacrifices made by martyrs and their families. Therefore, the State Government should ensure that not a single family of Telangana martyrs is left out. Any attempt to neglect or ignore the martyrs' families would be an insult for the entire people of Telangana,' he said.