Hyderabad, August 29: All parties, excluding the TDP and BJP, paid rich tributes to the martyrs of the power agitation at Shaheed Chowk in Bhasheerbagh here Friday.
Three CPM workers died in police firing in 2000 when the then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu introduced power reforms for the first in the county and hiked power tariff.
The leaders of the CPI and CPM jointly paid tributes to the martyrs and PCC president D Srinivas, PRP president K Chiranjeevi and CPIML leaders also paid tributes to the martyrs separately.
The leaders called upon their respective cadre to continue agitations for for overall development of the State.
The PCC president said that Rajasekhara Reddy was running the government in the spirit of the power agitation. He lauded the government’s plan to supply free power to the agriculture sector for nine hours a day. He alleged that the TDP had not changed its polices on people’s welfare.
Ministers D Nagendar, M Mukesh Goud and other PCC leaders participated in the programme.
PRP president Chiranjeevi said that if the government acted like a dictator people would have no option but to take to agitation. He alleged that the then TDP government had behaved like a dictator to suppress the movement.
CPM State secretary BV Ragahvullu said the Congress government was carrying on World Bank-dictated policies in different forms and the Left parties were committed to creating awareness among the people about anti people polices of the state government.
CPI deputy general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said that agitations were the only solution to redress people’s grievances in the country.
CPI State secretary K Narayana said that because of the `power agitation’ the Congress Government was continuing free power scheme in the State.
Nearly seven CPI-ML parties conducted separate meeting at Desodharaka Bhavan in Bhasheerbag and strongly criticised the Central and State governments’ policies.
–Agencies–