Hyderabad: A female junior panchayat secretary, Bari Soni died on Friday, purportedly by suicide, in the Panchayat Raj office of the Rangapuram village, Khanampuram mandal in Warangal.
She had done a survey at Khanapuram with other secretaries before landing at Rangapuram, where she was found unconscious.
Protests were held by the striking JPSs in Narsampet demanding ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh and justice for her family.
Bari Soni was reportedly part of the protests of the junior panchayat secretaries across the state in demand for the regularisation of their services and has rejoined service three days ago after the state government’s ‘re join or lose your job’ ultimatum.
While the reasons for her alleged suicide are still under investigation, opposition parties like the BJP and the BSP blamed the BRS-led state government for her suicide and asked for the fulfillment of their demands.
Panchayat secretaries in the state are up in arms against the state government since April 28.
Taking the ongoing strike by junior panchayat secretaries seriously, the state government warned them that their jobs would be terminated if they do not return to work immediately.
The government has given the striking staff until 5 pm on Tuesday to return to their responsibilities, or their services would be terminated.
Panchayat Raj secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania issued a notice to the agitating employees to this effect. The announcement comes after state Panchayat Raj minister E Dayakar Rao met with chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to inform him of the situation.
According to the notification, the junior panchayat secretaries established a union in breach of their contractual bond and have been on strike since April 28 in order to get their employment regularised. In its agreement bond, the JPS stated that it would not join any service union/organization/association.
They would not claim any right to be appointed on a regular basis, and such appointment would be without prejudice to any future regular appointments.
“Regularisation of service of any contract employee cannot be for all but will be subject to the assessment and evaluation of their performance by a committee appointed by the government. Those whose performance is found to be satisfactory can only be regularised,” Sultania stated in the notice.
