Will the Congress disrupt PM Modi's maiden Telangana visit?
FollowThe area has been the epicentre of various farmers’ protests and visits by opposition parties and civic society organisations like the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), all against the proposed Mallanna Sagar reservoir.
Though the controversial Government Order 123 has been set aside by the High Court, it is believed that farmers still wish to highlight to the PM the Telangana government's attempt to snatch their lands against their will, circumventing the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
The question is: How will the farmers draw the attention of the PM?
This is the uncertainty looming over the organisers of the PM’s meet.
Will farmers sneak into the venue to create a disturbance? Or will they stay in their villages as a boycott of the program?
Farmers, especially women, who were injured during a police lathi charge are seething with anger and want to bring this incident as well to the notice of the PM.
Police are reportedly trying to convince farmers to stage protests in their villages. As a deterrent, police have also been deployed in large numbers in the area to crush any protest at the village level itself.
Another worry of the police and the state government is the Congress' strategy. Congress’s Medak district strongman, former Congress MLA Turpu Jayaprakash Reddy, has demanded that he be allowed to present a memorandum to the PM on the problems of farmers in the district.
He has already warned that he would enter the PM’s program venue with 2000 people to protest before the PM. Former Minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy said she would lead a ‘Chalo Gajwel’ yatra on August 7 to meet the PM.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi claims the Congress is worried because the launching of Mission Bhagirathi from Gajwel is a fulfilment of chief minister KCR’s pre-election assurance. KCR had claimed that he would not come seeking votes in 2019 if he could not get water supplied to every household in the area.
The Congress, however, alleges that KCR has diverted water from the Yellampalli project in an unscientific manner, hurting the interests of the people of Karimnagar district.
However, irrigation minister T Harish Rao has urged opposition parties not to create any disturbance during the first-ever visit of PM Modi. Objecting to the Congress writing a letter to PM asking him to cancel his Gajwel visit, Harish reminded the opposition party that the PM himself lauded the 'Mission Bhagiratha' in his 'Maan Ki Baat' program.
“If you try to create problems during the PM's visit, you will be seen by the people as stalling their development. You might even lose your opposition status in the Assembly,” he warned the Congress.
