TRS to gherao AP ministers and MPs, file contempt petition

Hyderabad, May 5 (UNI) The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) will gherao Ministers, ruling Congress MPs and other MLAs, and file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court soon against the Andhra Pradesh Government for going ahead with the Indirasagar Polavaram project allegedly without clearance from the Centre despite the matter being sub judice.

Talking to media here today, TRS President K Chandrasekar Rao said the party would resort to agitation in the tribal areas which would be submerged by the project.

He called upon party activists to question ministers and the ruling party MPS and MLAs about the government's ''undemocratic and illegal'' action of implementing the project, ignoring the tribals' problems.

''It is a question of life and death for more than one lakh tribals of 450 villages,'' he charged, adding the party would also oppose the Dummagudem project. ''The TRS activists will not allow even a drop of Godavari water to be taken from Telangana before the needs of the region are met,'' he asserted.

He said a TRS delegation would call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week to press for withdrawal of the mandatory ''skull and bones logo'' on beedi packets. Admitting the ill-effects of tobacco consumption, he, however, said the Government should not take such a drastic step which will pursuade them in a state distress.

It would also demand its intervention to stop the Babli project by Maharashtra, Income Tax exemption for the workers of the Singareni Collieries and 200 TMC of water for the flouride-affected Nalgonda district, he informed.

The party would also fight a legal battle against the Congress Government which was taking up the Pottireddipadu head regulator expansion project to divert Krishna water assured by the Bachawat Tribunal to Telangana, he said.

UNI