PMO returning money orders On 2-G spectrum licenses

The Prime Minister’s Office has been returning the one rupee money orders sent by Lok Satta Party and other activists with the message that the Government of India cancel all 2-G spectrum licenses, recoup the loss to the exchequer and institute an anti corruption commission.

Disclosing this here today in a media statement, Lok Satta Party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma said students and youth would continue to bombard the PMO with money orders, faxes, emails and post cards reiterating the demands until December 9, World Anti Corruption Day.

He extended greetings to the Ministers who took office today and wanted them to focus on people’s burning problems and fight corruption. The Ministry should strive to ensure remunerative prices to agricultural produce, and resolve demands raised by beedi workers, auto rickshaw drivers, contract lecturers and others.

Farmer in distress makes children give up Education and work as coolies (Telugu)

Farmer in distress makes children give up Education and work as coolies

The desperate farmer of Medak district who burnt away the paddy crop in his three-acre farm because of his inability to get the crop harvested has made his children drop out from educational institutions and work as daily wage earners.

The heart-rending story of the marginal farmer Kankara Mallesam of Nawabpet village in Hutnur mandal of Medak district came to light following a visit to the village by State Lok Satta Party leaders Bandaru Rammohana Rao and G. Raja Reddy today.

Mallesam had spent Rs.60000 on raising paddy in his three-acre farm. When it was ripe for harvest, he could not access agricultural workers to reap it.

Farmers in the village import agricultural workers from the neighboring Nalgonda district and Karnataka State. AS of today, there are 300 agricultural workers drawn from outside the village with a population of 2000. Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has witnessed the number of workers opting for agricultural work dwindling all over rural Andhra Pradesh.

The migrant laborers were not prepared to work on his farm located about three km from the village, although he offered to share 50 percent of the produce with them. Even if he wanted to, he could not hire a harvester, as it cannot negotiate the slushy track to the farm.

Neither the sarpanch of the village nor the local legislator visited the farmer in distress. The sarpanch, a Dalit, had migrated to another village to work as a mason. The local legislator and former Minister was engrossed in Ministry-making politics in Hyderabad. Agriculture Department officials, who had failed to get the crop insured, now tell the farmer they can do little since he has burnt away his crop.

The Lok Satta Party leaders accompanied by Tummanapalli Srinivas and Sudheer Reddy, who visited the farm after trekking two km and called on the farmer tried to console him. Mallesam, aged about 55, is a widower. Having married off a son and a daughter, he is taking care of the other two children – a 17-year-old boy doing Intermediate and a 13-year-old girl in her eighth class. Now he has made them give up education and work as daily coolies to help him make both ends meet.

Power struggle in Congress Punishing people: Lok Satta (Telugu)

Power struggle in Congress Punishing people: Lok Satta

The power struggle within the Congress is aggravating people’s miseries in Andhra Pradesh, commented the Lok Satta Party here today.

Talking to the media, Lok Satta Party leaders V. Laxman Balaji, P. Bhaskara Rao and Ravi Maruth pointed out that a paralyzed administration had failed to address the two burning problems – the agrarian crisis and widespread corruption.

The Lok Satta leaders at the outset pointed out that the resignation of Mr. Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and his mother Mrs. Vijayalakshmi from the Congress, and the Lok Sabha and the Assembly respectively, is an internal matter of their party on the surface. The 14-month-old power struggle within the ruling party, however, has been playing havoc with people’s lives.

They referred to reports of small and marginal farmers burning away the paddy crop ripe for harvest, unable to pay daily wages ranging from Rs.300 to Rs.400 to agricultural laborers. The Government had abdicated its responsibility of ensuring fair and remunerative prices for paddy. It remained a silent spectator as rice millers exploited the hapless farmers. It has not bothered to announce the State advisory price for sugarcane even on the eve of the harvest whereas the U. P. Government fixed it as Rs.250 a quintal.

They reiterated the party stand that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme be extended to cover agriculture so that farmers did not face shortage of labor even as workers found gainful employment.

The Lok Satta Party leaders said that corruption had become rampant as a weak Government would not initiate any measures to combat it. They referred to the Supreme Court observation that something is rotten in the Allahabad High Court and said the same could be said of every sphere in Andhra Pradesh.

They disclosed that Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan would be leaving for New Delhi on a three-day visit to discuss the agrarian crisis with the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chief Economic Advisor to Government of India Kaushik Basu, and Planning Commission members. He will discuss electoral reforms as one of the means to combat corruption with members of the Election Commission of India. The Lok Satta has already taken some initiatives for the formation of a National Judicial Commission to pre-empt and punish corruption in the judiciary.