JP to hold satyagraha today

Hyderabad: Protesting against largescale encroachment of government lands in Greater Hyderabad limits, Lok Satta Party national president Dr Jayaprakash Narayan will be undertaking a silent satyagraha near Gokul Plots in Serilingampally from 10 am to 5 pm on Tuesday (today).

The decision comes in the wake of Sunday’s institution of cases against four Lok Satta leaders, including state president Katari Srinivas Rao, for demolishing pillars raised by a private builder for erecting a gate across a public road opposite Gokul Plots. Interestingly, Jayaprakash is embarking on satyagraha on Pongal day which also happens to be his birthday.

Briefing details at a media conference here, Lok Satta leaders – Eeda Chennayya, Dosapati Ramu, P Sivaji and Velaga Srinivas charged the State government and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) with remaining silent even though land sharks grabbed thousands of acres of land worth crores of rupees.

Instead of taking action against such criminals, authorities, for strange reasons, were cracking a whip against Lok Satta leaders and locals, they rued. The Lok Satta leaders said that the move to close the 60-foot-wide public road caused inconvenience to nearly 15,000 people who were using it for decades.

Their representations to police, revenue and municipal authorities against encroachment of public land since November 15 have gone unheeded. It was only as a last resort Lok Satta activists demolished the pillars, the party members added. Lok Satta leaders recalled that the party has fought against encroachment of a park in Venkata Ramana Colony in Khairatabad, a slum at Syamalakunta in Sanathnagar and privatisation of some parts of Botanical Gardens.