TRS Government unleashing anti-tiller terror: Congress

EXCUSE ME MALLANNA...

Ever since Mallannasagar project shot into limelight, political parties particularly Congress and Telugu Desam Party started deploying a variety of rhetorical devices against the ruling TRS, charging it with usurping land from the poor farmers by resorting to arm-twisting tactics. Stung by the scathing criticism by the Opposition parties and farmers' bodies, the powers-that-be now are going all out to frame a new land acquisition law as a face-saving measure and also to arm themselves to deal with vexatious issue without any legal hitches. In fact, the ongoing unsavoury development is bound to snowball into a major political skirmish between the ruling TRS party and Opposition

TPCC appeals the Governor to restrain TRS government from forceful land acquisition for Mallannasagar Project

Hyderabad: A delegation of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) called on Governor E S L Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan on Monday and submitted a memorandum against the forcible land acquisition for various projects by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in the State.

“The TRS government is destroying the livelihood of farmers, land tenants, agriculture labour, artisans etc., and suppressing their fundamental rights. The State government, which is supposed to be the custodian of the Indian Constitution, has unfortunately become the violator of the Constitution and thereby farmers, land tenants, agriculture labour and artisans have become helpless and vulnerable. And their very survival is endangered,” said TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy in his petition to the Governor.

Uttam Kumar Reddy disputed the claims of the TRS government that GO MS 123 was only to enable the ‘willing sale by farmers and procurement by the government’. He alleged that the government was literally bulldozing and blackmailing farmers to sell their lands. “The government has become a land dealer or broker in the name of GO MS 123. It maliciously came up with GO MS 214 and deliberately removed the provisions of R&R from the original GO MS 123. This is a clear reflection of the cruelty of the ruling government towards farmers,” he said.

The TPCC president said the present form of GO MS 123 did not provide any social security and facilitate resettlement and rehabilitation to the project-affected population. He said the government was pressurising farmers to sell their lands and using coercive and unconstitutional methods using local police and revenue officials. “In villages that are likely to be submerged under proposed Mallannasagar project, the State government has unleashed unlawful terror deploying police forces in the project-affected villages and threatening the villagers to give away their lands to government,” he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy also reminded that affected farmers were brutally lathi-charged when they held a protest on July 24. As many as 163 farmers, including women, were injured in the incident. No action was taken against DSP Sridhar Goud, who ordered illegal firing and lathi-charge against the farmers. The same DSP was spared although one Sub Inspector Ramakrishna Reddy, in his suicide note, held him responsible for his death.

Condemning imposition of Section 144 in those villages, the TPCC chief accused the TRS government of creating ‘Kashmir-like situation’ to terrorise villagers by doing flag-marches by fully armed policemen. He said even the orders of the High Court were being violated without any fear. “This is a clear-cut case of abuse of power by the government of Telangana," he said. Uttam Kumar Reddy also appealed to the Governor to direct the State government to immediately lift the Section 144 in the project affected villages and withdraw false cases against the villagers.

The TPCC delegation comprised Leader of Opposition in Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, former TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah, former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, MLA T Jeevan Reddy, former Minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, TPCC Vice-President Mallu Ravi and other senior leaders.