3-day BJP hunger strike from Wednesday

HYDERABAD: The national committee of BJP will organise a three-day hunger strike here from Wednesday to build pressure on the central and state governments to accept weavers’ demands.The BJP  alleged that due to the Congress-led UPA government’s policies and the central and state governments’ attitude, weavers and the textile industry in the country were in a bad shape. They wanted to expose UPA government’s failures by highlighting the situation in the state.BJP national secretary and unorganised sector in-charge P Muralidhar Rao will lead the hunger strike camp and all leaders of the party will take part in the programme. Muralidhar Rao organised several innovative protest programmes earlier on fishermen, beedi workers and on workers of various  unauthorised sectors. BJP national president Nitin Gadkari will take part in the protest on December 16.The BJP state committee made elaborate arrangement for the hunger strike which will be organised  at Indira Park in the city. A large number of weavers, activists and leaders will also take part in the protest.According to Rao, BJP organised several programmes across the state on weavers’ demands but the central and state governments failed to address the weavers’ and handloom textile problems.He said  700 weavers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh and unofficial reports put the figure at nearly 2,000. The reasons for the suicides include lack of regular job work, inadequate wages, indebtedness, non-clearance of bills by governmental agencies, high cost of production and non-ruminative prices, and ill health. Even when the government declares financial assistance to the families of the victims, it is not delivered one pretext or the other, he said.