City gets new outfit to fight for civilian rights

The newly-launched organisation - Hyderabad Zindabad – comes down heavily on the KCR government

Hyderabad: Eminent personalities from different fields were highly critical of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s governance, which they termed as thoughtless, directionless and anti-democratic.

A new organisation titled ‘Hyderabad Zindabad’ was launched to safeguard rights of civilians at a programme held at Ravindra Bharathi on Sunday. Senior journalist Pasham Yadagiri chaired the event in which Justice Chandra Kumar and Central Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar took part as chief guests.

Addressing the gathering, Chandra Kumar lashed out at the government’s decisions to shift the Secretariat and dismantle Osmania General Hospital. “Do they bother to take views of experts on such key issues?” he questioned. The justice expressed his ire at Chief Minister’s earlier announcement to construct houses for poor in Osmania University lands.

Premier education institutions would decide future and careers of lakhs of students, he said and asked what was the need to touch such lands when the government could act upon encroachers and land grabbers and resume thousands of acres. The day would not be far away when people will term Chandrashekar Rao’s rule as ‘Tughlak rule’ if he did not change his working style, he cautioned.

Meanwhile, Madabhushi Sridhar stressed that Hyderabad Zindabad should not just be a slogan but it should play an influential role in the lives of people residing here. He faulted the Hyderabad development model which was only focusing on the new city, ignoring the old city completely. The government created big hype for Godavari Pushkaralu, but why it was not initiating action against industries that were releasing effluents and polluting waters, he asked.

Even during the Ganesh festival, idols made of plaster of Paris were widely used instead of clay idols and when immersed in Hussainsagar the water was getting polluted, he said. Meanwhile, prominent civil rights crusader Dr Vittal Rajan was chosen as the chairman of ‘Hyderabad Zindabad’, which speakers termed as Fifth Estate in the society.