Fight for Telangana will be non-violent: KCR

Hyderabad, Aug 11 (UNI) Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao today said the agitation for the formation of separate Telangana state would be intensified further, but clarified that the fight would be ''totally democratic and non-violent.'' Launching training classes for the first batch of the leaders of the party's students wing at its headquarters here, Mr Rao advised the student leaders to spread the message about the need for bifurcation of the state to their peers in other educational institutions.

Urging the students to take forward the movement for a separate Telangana state which his party had initiated six years ago, he however, urged them not to spoil their education for the sake of the agitation.

The students, employees and other sections could devote about 15 days in a year for the cause of Telangana, the TRS chief said and expressed happiness that even girl students were coming forward to participate in the movement.

The training programme, imparted to nearly four lakh students, would continue for the next 60 to 70 days and experts on Telangana would enlighten the students about the need for a separate state, he added.

Stressing the need for involvement of students in the movement, he said his party had accommodated over 15,000 student leaders in different wings of the party.

Asking the students to enroll as many of their colleagues in the TRS Students Union, the TRS President said even people of Telangana origin residing in Britain, US, Gulf and other coutries had recognised the need for separate statehood.

Earlier, inviting the students for the training programme, party ideologue Prof Jaishankar said though the region had immense mineral reserves and major rivers, still the people living there were in utmost poverty, due to the negligence of the respective governments.

Maintaining that it was this region that had witnessed maximum suicides of farmers due to debt, he said that statehood was the only way to solve the problems of the people of the region.

UNI