The Hindu : Front Page : Top brass of Telugu Desam hits road

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 29, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Top brass of Telugu Desam hits road

N. Rahul

Padayatra seeks priority for the region in implementing irrigation projects

ALL FOR WATER: Farmers with ploughs and bullock-carts leading the TDP's `padayatra' at Mancherial in Adilabad district on Saturday. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

MANCHERIAL (Adilabad dt.): Almost the entire top brass of the Telugu Desam Party belonging to Telangana hit the road marking commencement of a 24-day-long padayatra from this coal town here on Saturday demanding priority for the region in the implementation of irrigation projects.

Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu, now in Switzerland, will address a rally when the padayatra terminates in Hyderabad on February 20.

The TDP leaders offered `pooja' on the banks of the Pranahita river, a tributary of the Godavari, near Kautala, on Friday for the success of the programme. They are demanding expediting the project to link the Pranahita with the Godavari at Yellampalli near here before the water is canalised to Chevella in Ranga Reddy district. Although the Government has ordered a survey of the project, the work has not yet begun.

Festive atmosphere

In a counter-campaign, a host of senior Congress leaders, including Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, G. Venkataswamy, MP, and Labour Minister G. Vinod later visited the `pooja' spot and `cleansed it with cow's urine and invoked the blessings of the gods to remove hurdles coming in the way of irrigation projects.

They blasted the Telugu Desam for allegedly trying to thwart irrigation projects.

A festive atmosphere prevailed in this town when the TDP leaders began the 450-km-long walkathon followed by hundreds of supporters holding aloft party flags and banners. The procession threw traffic on the busy Mancherial- Nagpur highway out of gear.

Led by TDP deputy leader in Assembly T. Devender Goud, the padayatra commenced at 10.30 a.m. from a school premises on the outskirts where the party leaders stayed overnight under shamianas as the mercury dipped steeply.

The site was equipped with all basic amenities, including a kitchen, quilts, places to bathe, water tankers and a huge stock of provisions. There was a touch of amusement when Congress workers passed in the opposite direction for their counter campaign. Gaily decorated trucks and cultural troupes dancing to the beat of drums, particularly the famous Ghusadi dancers of the Gond tribe, lent colour to the procession.

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