Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Bardhan favours unconditional talks with PW

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Oct. 15. The CPI general secretary, A. B. Bardhan, on Wednesday favoured a ceasefire and unconditional talks with the People's War and wanted the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, to show it as the first example of the change in his heart.

Referring to the talk of early elections, he said his party was prepared to face it and make all-out effort to defeat the BJP and its allies. He was addressing a huge public meeting organised by the State CPI on conclusion of its Statewide "padayatra" demanding among other things, special package for Telangana.

Earlier, CPI workers, who came from different parts of the State, took out a big procession from Sundarayya Park at Bagh Lingampally to Exhibition Grounds, the venue of the meeting.

Mr. Bardhan he said there was nothing wrong in Mr. Naidu opening a dialogue with the PW, when the Centre could talk to NSCN militants who were demanding independent Greater Nagaland and with Pakistan which keeps sending trained terrorists to Kashmir. "PW cadre is after all our own people fighting for the poor and the dissatisfied sections.'' He said Mr. Naidu should take a cue from Bihar, which had announced holding of such a dialogue with the PW. It was the only way of ending violence and counter violence and restoring peace and normality in Andhra Pradesh, he added while condemning the attempt on the life Mr. Naidu and the "politics of violence" adopted by the PW.

At the same time, the State Government should not forget that as long as there was poverty, hunger, farmers not getting their due and atrocities on weaker sections and wealth concentrated in a few, there was no way of tackling extremism. "Solve these problems and there will be no dissatisfaction among different sections and extremists will not to go to forest to take up arms.'' He said these issues could not be solved by "one crore boons" but by allotting land to the landless, removal of poverty and providing equal opportunities to all.

Complimenting the State unit of the party for organising the "padayatra" and getting good public response, Mr. Bardhan said the party couldn't allow its sacrifices for an integrated State, to go waste. "We agree that there are imbalances and certain regions remain neglected and the padayatra helped in highlighting these issues. These need to be addressed to remove tensions.''

Turning to the plight of tribals, he said both the Centre and the State, were displacing and virtually declaring a Martial Law in these areas, in the name of conservation and checking naxalism, though they were the ones who were saving the forests. It is the timber smugglers, contractors and industrialists who were destroying the forest wealth and not tribals.

S. Sudhakar Reddy, Secretary of the State Council of CPI, charged the State Government with neglecting irrigation projects on the directions of the World Bank and turning the focus on "Neeru Meeru" and mini percolation tanks.

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