Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

TDP yatra against Babli flagged off

Special Correspondent

Plans dharna near Jantar Mantar on May 14

`DELHI CHALO': TDP workers hold aloft cutouts of party president N. Chandrababu Naidu before leaving for New Delhi on Saturday from Secunderabad railway station in a chartered train. — PHOTO: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu said here on Saturday that his party would fight without compromise to protect the interests of the State and its people.

He was speaking to presspersons after flagging off the chartered train, `Sriramsagar Parirakshana Yatra', so christened to mark its endeavour to take the controversial Babli Barrage issue to New Delhi.

Dharna plan

The TDP will stage a dharna near Jantar Mantar on May 14. Incidentally, May 12 marks the day TDP first sent a letter to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy about Babli's construction, two years ago.

Mr. Naidu said the Congress had several MPs and MLAs but they were doing precious little to safeguard the farmers' interests.

The TDP, on the other hand, had always been with farmers and would work for their welfare, he added. The TDP chief said two years of protests in various forms had failed to attract Centre's attention on the gravity of the situation.

"The Centre is duty-bound to interfere and arbitrate in the interests of people in a State downstream of the River Godavari," he said, regretting that the Congress appeared to interfere despite being in power in AP and Maharashtra.

"We will strive to get a firm assurance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he will restrain Maharashtra from going ahead with works on Babli and 11 other barrages upstream in River Godavari", he said.

Mr. Naidu reiterated that it was not as if the entire trip was sponsored by the party. "Every participant has paid Rs. 1,000 for the `Chalo Delhi' and food, water and butter milk have been contributed by our leaders," he said

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