Press Releases Archive

It is time the country declared a war on corruption since there is a broad consensus not merely on its prevalence but the threat it posed to the future of the country, said Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan here today.

He was addressing a meeting at the party headquarters after unfurling the national flag to mark Hyderabad State Liberation Day.

Asserting that people belonging to all regions and sections of the country perceived corruption as a common threat, Dr. JP said corruption eradication is possible because Indians per se are not evil people. Systemic changes, for instance, have helped eradicate corruption in the telecom sector. If we ensure that the corrupt are jailed, thrown out of positions of power and disgorged of ill-gotten wealth, corruption will make a hasty retreat.

On the allegations of corruption against some of the former Chief Justices of India, Dr. JP said it was better to expose corruption than to conceal it and we must utilize the occasion to cleanse the system. Sadly, no institution in the country is above the taint of corruption.

Dr. JP said September 17, 1948 witnessed the last and the biggest princely State being integrated with India. It took bloody battles and 23 years for nine kingdoms in Italy and 39 kingdoms in Germany to unite into nations. In contrast, more than 540 princely States were united into Indian Union peacefully and within a year. “We should not take our national unity accomplished by patriots and visionaries like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for granted. We should be ready to make any sacrifice for preserving and promoting our country’s unity and integrity.”

The liberation of Hyderabad State from the Nizam rule has nothing to do with religion. It was a culmination of the struggle for one India under one flag, and against despotic rule waged by all sections of people including the Leftists.

He recalled how the country had to be partitioned because of religious fanaticism and said the cataclysmic event saw 15 million people being displaced, 1.5 million losing their lives and 600,000 people being injured. In the recent past, Yugoslavia has broken into different countries after the death of its President Tito.

Dr. JP said that there forces in the country which are out to disrupt the unity of the country in the name of region, religion, caste and language to serve their partisan end of coming to power at any cost. Power and positions have become means for looting the public and not for serving them. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the integrity of the highest judiciary has come under a shadow even as Hyderabad lawyers, who are supposed to preserve and protect the Constitution have resorted to unprofessional conduct by resorting to violence.

Municipal administration in urban areas has virtually collapsed going by the sharp deterioration in sanitation in the wake of incessant rains in the State, charged the Lok Satta Party here today.

Addressing the media, party leaders V. Laxman Balaji, Mrs. N. Saroja Devi and Mrs. K. Nagamani pointed out that with their term about to end and there being no prospect of immediate elections, elected people’s representatives have ignored the plight of people especially in slums. The State Government seems paralyzed because of internal rifts within the ruling party.

The Lok Satta leaders said that people pay taxes to the Government hoping it will ensure them sanitation, safe drinking water, medical and other facilities. Lok Satta activists engaged in drafting ward manifestos are being greeted by foul smelling garbage and overflowing drains everywhere. There is no sign of medical teams even as diseases like dengue are raging. People are forced to knock at private hospitals and incur huge expenditure as Government facilities have neither medicines nor doctors. Both officials and people’s representatives have turned a blind eye to the situation.

The Lok Satta leaders demanded that the Government launch a special sanitation drive in all municipal areas, dispatch medical teams and attend to people’s health problems.

The Lok Satta also demanded that the Government immediately go to the rescue of farmers who have suffered crop losses. According to Government’s own estimates, crops in some three lakh hectares have been submerged and crops like paddy, cotton, maize and green gram are under pest attack. They wanted the Government, which had failed to ensure fertilizer supply on time, to make available at least pesticides.