The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TDP, Left want ORR put on hold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP, Left want ORR put on hold

Staff Reporter

Hundreds of activists taken into custody

JOINING HANDS: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu and T. Devender Goud help Outer Ring Road oustees cook food at a protest on Indira Park Road in Hyderabad on Tuesday. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: Hundreds of people comprising activists of the Left and Telugu Desam parties, including CPI State Secretary K. Narayana and former Home Minister T. Devender Goud were taken into preventive custody on Tuesday after separate public meetings at "Dharna Chowk" here on the issue of lands to the poor in Ranga Reddy district.

The CPI leaders and others were picked up when they took out a "Chalo Assembly" rally, while the TDP leaders were taken into preventive custody half an hour after their party president N. Chandrababu Naidu addressed the agitators.

Naidu's regret

Mr. Naidu regretted that the Government did not have 60 square yards of land to give to the poor, while it was giving away large tracts of land to corporates. "This Government will face people's wrath if it does not consider the basic demands and do justice," he said, adding that the TDP was with the poor and would not stop agitating until the demands were met.

Others who were arrested included Andhra Pradesh Rytu Sangham President K. Ramakrishna and All India Kisan Sabha leader Kolli Nageswara Rao. The TDP leaders included MLA K. Hareeshwar Reddy and former Tandur MLA Mahender Reddy.

Mr. Narayana said they were not per se against the ORR project and wanted it to be put on hold. "The Government should consider alternatives without displacing too many people. What we want is transparency in the process. Also, those displaced should be given equal land, not just 10 per cent of the extent lost," he said.

CPI (M) State Committee member Y. Venkateswara Rao reiterated the party's demand for an enquiry by a sitting High Court Judge into the whole affair of large tracts of land given away to powerful companies and the ban on assignment of land for individuals.

Earlier, Mr. Naidu went around speaking to dozens of women who cooked food on the road, protesting against their displacement.

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