Telangana government rules out treating state martyrs as 'freedom fighters'

Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Wednesday ruled out treating Telangana martyrs who had sacrificed their lives for the cause of the Telangana state during the 1969 agitation and the recent Telangana agitation between 2009 and 2014 as “freedom fighters”.

The “freedom fighter” status would ensure Telangana martyrs’ families a monthly pension of nearly Rs 16,500, on par with freedom fighters who fought for the country’s Independence, besides free travel on buses and trains and free medical care.

Minister for legislative affairs T Harish Rao made it clear in the Legislative Assembly that there was no proposal to treat the Telangana martyrs as “freedom fighters”. He said that the government had already allotted Rs 100 crore for the families of Telangana martyrs in the recent Budget for paying Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia to each of the families.

He informed the House that 459 Telangana martyrs’ families had been identified so far, for whom Rs 45.90 crore had been released for ex gratia. He added that the government would also provide a government job to one eligible person in their families, cultivable land in case the family was involved in farming, housing facility to the needy along with free education and health care.

However, Opposition parties slammed the TRS government for identifying only 459 martyrs.