Press Releases Archive

Committee on Telangana an Eye-wash: Lok Satta

The Chief Minister’s statement in the Assembly on constituting a committee on Telangana is aimed at reaping electoral advantage and not at respecting people’s sentiments, said the Lok Satta Party here today.

The Congress, which had contested the 2004 elections on the Telangana plank in alliance with the TRS, is now forced to go it alone because it did not bother to fulfill its promises on Telangana. Unable to answer the people in Telangana, the party is seeking a face-saver, party Vice President J. Irama Murthy and Secretary K. Gita Murthy told the media.

The Lok Satta accused the Chief Minister of deceiving people of all regions by recalling he had talked about objections to the formation of a separate Telangana from minorities and people of other regions and indicated to them that the division of the State was not on the cards. What was the point in appointing yet another committee since a committee headed by Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee is already seized of the issue, they asked.

The Lok Satta said that all the traditional parties are playing with Telangana people’s sentiments for electoral gains and said the change in the Telugu Desam Party’s support to Telangana too is not aimed at honoring their sentiments. Taking the people for a ride in the name of Telangana is not pardonable, although the issue whether a separate State will transform people’s lives in Telangana is debatable.

Far from evaluating the Government’s performance over the last five years in the last session of the legislature, the parties had wasted precious time wrangling and unveiled the shape of things to come if they were re-elected.

Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 16:56

Lok Satta against ban on live coverage Of Assembly proceedings

The Lok Satta today opposed the move to put an end to the live TV coverage of Assembly proceedings taking the incidents in the Assembly on Wednesday as a pretext.

Briefing the media, Lok Satta Party Vice President Iramamurthy and Secretary J. Geeta Murthy said that notwithstanding the abuse of the proceedings to promote partisan political interests by different parties, live coverage would help people evaluate their representatives’ performance.

The Lok Satta pointed out that the issues surrounding Sakshi daily of Chief Minister’s son Jaganmohan Reddy and Heritage belonging to Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu’s family could have been deliberated upon without wasting time over mutual recriminations. The House seems to have suspended all members of the Opposition indiscriminately, including several who did not disrupt the proceedings. Such a cavalier and partisan approach would only undermine faith in democracy. The party faulted the suspended leaders rebelling against marshals and some ordinary police acting as marshals.

If the political parties and their leaders were serious and sincere about fighting corruption, they should get a special court constituted to go into charges of illegal acquisition of properties by the Chief Minister and the leader of the Opposition.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 17:04

Loksatta State Working Committee

Vice Presidents

  1. Beesetti A Babji
  2. J.Rama Murthy
  3. T.R.Jagannatha Reddy
  4. Jaganmohan Raju
  5. P.Kodanda Rama Rao
  6. B.Krishna Reddy
  7. N.Manorama
  8. Akurathi Murali Krishna
  9. K.V.N.Prasad
  10. G.Pratibha Rao
  11. Y.D.Rama Rao
  12. Jupalli Satyanarayana
  13. D.V.V.S.Varma

General Secreatries

  1. K.Dharma Reddy
  2. R.Jhansi Lakshmi
  3. V.Lakshman Balaji
  4. G.Malyadri
  5. G.Raja Reddy
  6. Katari Srinivasa Rao

Secretaries

  1. P.Bhaskara Rao
  2. K.Geetha Murthy
  3. K.Krishna Swamy
  4. A.Maharani
  5. U.Narendar
  6. Omkar
  7. G.Rama Raju
  8. Enugu Ramarao
  9. P.Ravi Maruth
  10. Sankaraiah
  11. B.Siva Kumar
  12. Sayyad
  13. K.G.Venkatesh
  14. Dommata Venkatesh
  15. Vijay Singh
  16. Vijayendar Reddy
  17. D.Vishnu Murthy

Joint Secretaries

  1. Aman Khan
  2. Chennayya
  3. N.Jayaprakash Narayan
  4. Kavya
  5. M.D.Gafoor
  6. Partha Sarathi
  7. Raja Reddy
  8. Y.Rama Devi
  9. Sambasiva Rao Chaudhary
  10. Sankaramma
  11. N.Sridhar
  12. Vajeer

Council Advisors

  1. D.Anand Reddy
  2. Thammareddy Bharadwaj
  3. Chandramouli
  4. Devendranath Pande
  5. Garimella Narayana
  6. C.Narasimha Rao
  7. Ankem Prabhakararao
  8. T.P.N.Prasad
  9. Bodepudi Satyanarayana
  10. Upendra Varma
  11. Aluri Vijaya Lakshmi
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 19:44

Contact information of Lok Satta Karnataka Office bearers

The silent majority of people who are fed up with the present day political culture and yearning for change will have a platform of their own with the formal launching of the Karnataka unit of the Lok Satta Party on Thursday, February 5.

Traditional political parties and politicians have turned the once noble profession of politics into a privately or family-owned lucrative business. Acquiring power at any cost has become the single point program of most politicians as it facilitates personal enrichment at public cost. Therefore, they use money, liquor and muscle power to induce or threaten voters. They fan feelings of hatred and spark violence in the name of caste or religion, region or language in a bid to gain political mileage. Their investment in elections yields them fantastic returns once they come to power which opens up innumerable avenues for making money.

Overtaken by despair and despondency over their inability to change the corrupt and rotten political culture, large sections of people have developed revulsion for politics altogether and started treating it as untouchable. They do not even go to the polling booth, leave alone contesting elections because in election after election they have seen only a change in players but not in the rules of the game.

But by keeping away from politics, these sections are silently but unwittingly perpetuating the old order to continue. They forget that politics and elections are about the lives of citizens and not about the careers and fortunes of politicians and parties.

It is to provide an ethical and political platform with a clear-headed, honest and practical agenda to such people the Lok Satta Party came into existence on October 2, 2006 under the leadership of Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan.

Dr. JP, as he is popularly known quit the IAS to found Lok Satta, a civil society movement, and helped bring about radical reforms in a number of areas ranging from voter registration to political parties’ funding, disclosure of contestants’ criminal background to the enshrine of the right to information. Yet, the realization that real change in society comes through political action, and not through civil society action, made Dr. JP launch the Lok Satta Party.
In its short existence of a little over two years, the Lok Satta Party has repeatedly demonstrated it is a class apart from the traditional parties.

Karnataka State Coordinator: Dr. Keshava Kumar
1/1 1st Floor,
6th Cross,
Cheluvaiah Layout,
Ramamurthy Nagar,
Bengaluru - 560016
Mobile No: 98441 23536
Email address: drkeshavakumar [AT] hotmail [DOT] com

Karnataka State Secretary: Mr. Ashok Kamat
601, 3rd D Cross,
2nd Block,
Kalyannagar,
Bengaluru - 560043
Mobile No: 99642 31891
Email address: ashokkamat [AT] hotmail [DOT] com

Karnataka State Treasurer: Mr. Shashidhar Alabur
196, 1st Main,
3rd Stage, 4th Block,
Basaveshvar Nagar,
Bengaluru - 560079
Mobile No: 98440 04439
Email address: shashialabur [AT] gmail [DOT] com

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 19:31

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