Indian activist on hunger strike over land acquisition law

Hyderabad: The tug of war between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti and its erstwhile ally, the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (TJAC), intensified on Thursday.

The convenor of TJAC, Prof Kodandaram, announced an indefinite fast in protest against the “indiscriminate land acquisition” by the Telangana state government at the cost of farmers’ interests.

Kodandaram launched his hunger strike at his home in Hyderabad, after police refused to grant him permission to do so at the Indira Park or Gun Park near the state assembly.

Police also took into custody several other leaders who were heading towards the venue of the hunger strike from different parts of Telangana.

Kodandaram began the hunger strike a day after the state assembly passed the new Land Acquisition Act giving a free hand to the state to acquire any land “for the public good and in the national interest”.

The law amends the 2013 Land Acquisition Act of the central government.

Though Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao defended the law, saying land owners would get better compensation under it, opposition parties said it had given draconian powers to the state to take over whichever land it wanted.

The chief minister said the state government had the right to bring in such a law and other states, including Gujrat and Rajasthan, had already passed similar acts for the speedy acquisition of land.

Launching his indefinite fast, Kodandaram said, “nobody is against the land acquisition for development projects. But the Telangana government is acquiring land indiscriminately, and much more than required, harming the farmers”.

He said the 2013 legislation was sufficient for acquiring the land but the state government tried to do it under government ordinancess, and had now brought a draconian law to replace those instruments.

He appealed to the people to stage protest demonstrations in all the district and mandal headquarters on Friday and submit memorandums to the officials.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy and Congress floor leader in the state assembly K. Jana Reddy also visited Kodandaram’s hunger strike camp and expressed their solidarity with him.

“We never thought this would happen to Kodandram in Telangana. If this is the fate of Kodandram, who fought for a separate Telangana state, imagine what is happening to the ordinary people”, said Jana Reddy lashing out at the “repressive attitude” of KCR regime.

“During the debate on the land acquisition bill in the state assembly, the voice of the opposition was stifled and we were not allowed to speak,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

TJAC headed by Kodandaram was created at the initiative of K Chandrasekhar Rao to bring all the political parties on one platform to fight for separate Telangana state. However after the formation of Telangana state and the TRS coming to power Kodandrama had distanced himself from the ruling party.

Of late had had turned critical of TRS policies specially on the issue of land acquisition and the TRS leaders had started charging him with turning a Congress agent.