A large number of physically handicapped persons staged dharna in front of Congress party office, Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad. They have expressed their displeasure over government's approach in solving the problems of the handicapped. They demanded that the pensions of the handicapped should be increased to Rs. 2000 and backlog posts should be filled immediately. While the Congress party is already facing pressures and problems due to n number of problems, the criticism from physically challenged has apparently become another pain in the neck of the Congress party. Since there are large number of handicapped voters in the state, the political observers felt Congress cannot take a chance to ignore their demands.

(AW Phani)