YSR Students Union and YSR TUC announce statewide agitations

Tadepalli, October 18: YSR Congress Party has announced a united mass movement against the privatisation of government medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh. Separate meetings of the YSRCP Student Wing and the YSR Trade Union Congress (YSR TUC) were held at the party central office in Tadepalli under the leadership of Party General Secretary and MLC Lella Appireddy, where both student and workers’ wings resolved to launch a statewide One-Crore Signatures Movement to protect public education and public healthcare.
Speaking at the meetings, Lella Appireddy condemned the coalition government for its anti-people, anti-student and anti-worker policies. He said the government is aggressively privatising vital public assets including Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, tourism services, Aarogyasri health scheme and now government medical colleges, pushing the state into corporate control. He called upon students and workers to resist this privatisation agenda democratically and courageously, asserting that false cases, arrests and intimidation will not stop this people’s movement. He instructed that organisational committees of both wings must be strengthened immediately from state to village level to lead the agitation.

YSRCP Student Wing State President Panuganti Chaitanya and Working President Ravichandra said former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy built 17 government medical colleges to make medical education affordable and healthcare accessible to the poor, but Chandrababu Naidu is now handing them over to private corporate forces. They said that privatisation would deny super-speciality medical services to common people and convert medical education into a business. They announced that the YSR Students Union will begin the One-Crore Signatures Movement from October 23 across all universities and district headquarters.
YSR TUC State President Poonuru Gautam Reddy announced that YSR TUC will intensify workers’ participation in this struggle and mobilise all sectors of the labour community. He declared that on October 27, YSR TUC will organise simultaneous signature camps at industrial hubs, RTC depots, construction sites and labour colonies. He further announced that by November 10, statewide round-table meetings would be held to expose the government’s failures and also create public awareness on the menace of spurious liquor flourishing under political protection.
Both students and workers pledged to fight shoulder-to-shoulder until the government withdraws its privatisation policy and reinstates its commitment to public welfare.