YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday sharply condemned the police lathi-charge on village and ward secretariat employees protesting in Vijayawada, calling the crackdown 'utterly inhuman' and demanding a judicial inquiry, an apology, and the immediate revocation of all employee suspensions.

What Jagan Said on X

Taking to his official X account, Jagan Mohan Reddy directly targeted Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led state government, questioning the legitimacy of the crackdown on peaceful protesters.

'The police cane-charge on government employees is an extremely serious matter. When the government is unwilling to hold talks with them over their demands, how can raising their voices through a democratic protest be treated as a crime?' Jagan said in his post, adding that women employees were also allegedly injured and dragged away.

He further alleged that employees travelling to participate in a dharna were intercepted, detained at police stations, and subjected to harassment — and that large-scale suspensions were imposed specifically to prevent protest participation.

YSRCP's Core Allegations Against the TDP Government

Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that the Naidu administration has, since taking office, systematically targeted the village and ward secretariat system — which he described as a 'revolutionary administrative reform' introduced by his YSRCP government. He claimed the secretariat network delivered more than 540 services at the grassroots level.

According to Jagan, the YSRCP government had created 1.34 lakh permanent jobs through a single notification and another 2.6 lakh positions under the volunteer system. He alleged the current TDP government has placed nearly 30,000 of those permanent jobs at risk under the pretext of rationalisation.

He further alleged that volunteers were promised an increase in honorarium from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000, a commitment he said was broken after the TDP assumed power.

Pending Dues and Employee Grievances

The YSRCP chief also listed a series of unmet financial commitments, alleging that five Dearness Allowance (DA) instalments remain pending, that Interim Relief (IR) and a Pay Revision Commission (PRC) promised in the TDP manifesto have not materialised, and that the PRC Chairman appointed by the previous YSRCP government was removed. He claimed the state government owes employees nearly ₹40,000 crore, including unpaid surrender-leave dues.

Jagan alleged that workload previously handled by volunteers has been shifted onto secretariat employees, creating unsustainable pressure. He claimed that nearly 100 employees have lost their lives over the past two-and-a-half years — some due to severe stress and others by suicide — though these figures are attributed to his statement and have not been independently verified.

Political Context

This comes amid a wider standoff between the TDP-led state government and multiple categories of government employees, with Jagan alleging that protests have spread beyond secretariat workers to other employee groups as well. The former chief minister characterised the situation as evidence of growing 'authoritarianism' under Naidu's administration. Notably, the village and ward secretariat system has been a point of political contestation between the YSRCP and TDP since the TDP's return to power.

The Andhra Pradesh government had not issued an immediate formal response to Jagan's allegations at the time of reporting. How the Naidu administration addresses employee demands — and whether a judicial inquiry is ordered — will be closely watched in the days ahead.