Drop Cases Against Basheer Bagh Rally Leaders: Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government drop the CID move to file charge-sheets against people who led the movement against the hike in power tariffs in 2000.

Addressing a media conference, Lok Satta Party General Secretary Katari Srinivasa Rao said that leaders like Survaram Sudhakar Reddy (CPI), B. V. Raghavulu (CPM), Gummadi Narsaiah (New Democracy), and Mrs. Punyavati were sought to be accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy and instigating violence.

Mr. Srinivasa Rao said the Government apparently wants to subdue opposition by framing such atrocious cases 12 years after the Basheer Bagh firing incident. Violence might have erupted when the police tried to suppress a legitimate agitation. The Government should handle such issues politically.

Mr. M. Satyanarayana, President, Lok Satta Party's Greater Hyderabad unit, demanded that the Metro Water Board drop its irrational move to slap separate water bills on each portion of a house drawing water from a single connection. The board can raise tariff if absolutely necessary but under no circumstances should cast a burden on people by charging them separately when there is no increase in the quantum of water drawn.

Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that the Metro Water Board is collecting exorbitant deposits for giving water connections and its employees provide the connection only when their hands are greased. It supplies contaminated water even to this day forgetting that polluted water killed 14 people in Bholakpur in the city a couple of years ago. Billing is done just for 50 percent of the water it supplies and God only knows who the water thieves are. Against such a backdrop, the Metro Water Board is planning to punish people who pay their water bills regularly.

Mr. Srinivasa Rao also took exception to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation move to raise property tax steeply. Its record in maintaining sanitation, drainage system, and traffic facilities is awful. People are falling victims to diseases like dengue and malaria because the corporation has failed to contain the mosquito menace.

The Lok Satta will mobilize people against the move to hike property tax, Mr. Srinivasa Rao warned.

Mr. Srinivasa Rao appealed to students and youth not to commit suicide, referring to the instance of Osmania student D. Santosh ending his life in the cause of Telangana. They should live and fight for their demands, he added.