Barbers had been agitating for recognition as government employees

Within hours of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu promising a hike in the tonsuring charges from 13 to 25 and to consider other demands sympathetically, the Nayee Brahmins’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) called off the temple barbers’ four-day long strike late Monday night.

In a meeting with Mr. Naidu at the Praja Vedika in the evening, JAC leaders Guntupalli Ramadas, Annavarapu Brahmaiah and Vinukonda Subrahmanyam said they welcomed the CM’s assurances on their demands and blamed some persons unknown to them for the ugly episode at the Secretariat.They said the barbers had fruitful discussions with Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Endowments K.E. Krishna Murthy and when they walked out after the deliberations, the miscreants whom they could not see and identify started raising ‘CM down-down’ slogans.

They were hopeful that their problems would be solved in a week as per the word given by Mr. Krishna Murthy. The JAC leaders said the CM had told them that the government would take an appropriate decision on their demand for job security and other benefits in such a manner that they did not impose a burden on the people.The barbers had been agitating for recognition as government employees. But the CM rejected their demands and offered to hike the tonsuring charges for the time being.

Mr. Naidu expressed his anger at the slogans raised against him when he came to listen to their woes while leaving the Secretariat.Earlier, Mr. Murthy told the barbers that the hike in tonsuring charge would fetch them 20,000 to 25,000 per month which was well above the 15,000 they wanted to be fixed as monthly salary. He said the temples would pay the extra 12 to them but the tonsuring ticket price would remain unchanged.