VHR slams Modi govt

Sits on one-day hunger strike, opposing changes to Land Acquisition Act

Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao staged one- day hunger strike at Indira Park on Saturday, protesting against the Central government’s Ordinance relating to amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, which was proposed to take away the mandatory clause of 80 per cent consent of affected land owners.

Speaking on the occasion, VHR alleged that the BJP government was making the amendments in favor of corporate companies at the cost of farmers in the country. He warned that his party would protest against the government’s move in the coming budget session in the Parliament and would protect farmers’ legal rights, which were accorded through the Land Acquisition Act by the earlier UPA government under AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s leadership.

He also added that the people all over the country were vexed with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-corporate policies. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, who addressed the hunger strike camp, warned the Modi government that any change in the Act would push the large section of farmers in to landless category and cause social inequality and unrest all over the country.

Meanwhile, most of the senior leaders of Congress party have skipped the day-long dharna. Except for Ponnala, Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy, CLP leader in Council D Srinivas and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, no prominent leader participated in VHR's dharna protest. Instead, the Congress party went on with its regular schedule and turned dharna as VHR's personal agenda.

While VHR sat on the dharna, the TPCC chief and his deputy Mohammed Ali Shabbir conducted different programmes at party's headquarters at Gandhi Bhavan. They admitted Chintapandu Naveen Kumar, popular known as Teenmaar Mallanna, into the party. Later, Ponnala, Shabbir Ali and Ponnam addressed separate press conferences.