Lok Satta Party national President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan will be undertaking a silent satyagraha from 10 am to 5 pm on Tuesday, January 14, near Gokul Plots in Serilingampalli to protest against large-scale encroachment of Government lands in Greater Hyderabad.
The protest comes in the wake of Sunday’s institution of cases against Lok Satta Party leaders who demolished pillars raised by a private builder for erecting a gate across a public road opposite Gokul Plots in Serilingampalli.
Dr. JP is observing satyagraha on Pongal day which happens to be his birthday.
Giving this information at a media conference, Lok Satta Party leaders – Eeda Chennayya, Dosapati Ramu, P. Sivaji and Velaga Srinivas – pointed out that the Government and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation have remained silent spectators even as thousands of acres of land worth crores of rupees are being grabbed by land sharks. Instead of taking action against criminals, the authorities have arrested Lok Satta Party workers and instituted cases against the aggrieved.
The Lok Satta leaders said that the move to close the 60-foot-wide public road inconveniences nearly 15,000 people 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 the Lok Satta activists demolished the pillars.
“We will not be intimidated by the arrests and fight until the encroachment is ended,” the Lok Satta leaders asserted.
The 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 privatization of parts of Botanical Gardens.
Mrs. D. Saroja and Mr. Gorti Srinivas also took part in the media conference.
