AP: Locals attack outside candidates for BHEL jobs

Medak district police in Andhra Pradesh arrested six persons in connection with some local people beating up 'outsiders', including some Tamil youth who had come for job interviews at the Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd at Ramachandrapuram near Hyderabad.

Medak district superintendent of police VC Sajjanar told the rediff.com that the incident had flared up as the local people, including some existing BHEL employees and members of BHEL workers' union, were angry that the final list for interview call did not include the names of the local candidates and the list was full of outsiders.

In view of the tension and the controversy, the BHEL management cancelled the interviews. But trouble broke out when the candidates were returning from BHEL. "There was a clash in which many outsiders, not just Tamilians, were beaten up," Sajjanar said.

"We have already arrested six people," he said.

Police officials agreed that apart from the local versus non-local issue, the ongoing agitation for Telangana incident was also a factor in the incident as the people of Telangana have a long-standing grouse that they do not get their share in the jobs in organisations such as BHEL and most of the jobs always go to the non-locals.

Incidents of students from other states becoming a target of an attack came to notice when a group of 20 students from Chennai, upon their return home, met the police commissioner there and lodged a complaint with him.