Hyderabad, May 20: Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumantha Rao will tour north coastal Andhra from May 30 to June 3 to counter the challenge posed to the Congress by Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“I will tell farmers that Jagan has no right to talk about their plight since he himself has usurped farmland,” Hanumantha Rao told mediapersons at his residence on Thursday.
The MP will begin his tour in Srikakulam where several farmers have died resisting the loss of their land to thermal power projects.
“I will expose the designs of the corporate sector in robbing tribals of their livelihood. The china clay controversy in Visakhapatnam and SEZs in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts need to be exposed and the lands taken from farmers must be returned to them,’’ the MP said.
Ridiculing Jagan’s fast in support of farmers, he asked, “Wasn’t land taken from farmers and given to Brahmani Steels, promoted by friends of Jagan?”
He questioned how Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, who is close to Jagan, could ship iron ore from Obulapuram abroad when a mining lease was given to him on the condition that it be supplied to Brahmini Steels.
“In fact I want a white paper published on the mining leases given since 2004. I want to know whether those who obtained such leases mined ore in the areas given to them or in other areas,” he said.
The Congress leader said his fight was to ensure the land wrested from farmers at throwaway prices, ostensibly to start industries, be returned to them.
“The same land was resold for more than Rs 1 crore per acre. I want all such lands returned to farmers without insisting on repayment of the compensation paid to them,” Hanumantha Rao said.
Asked if his yatra had the permission of the Congress high command, Hanumantha Rao shot back: “There is no need for permission to do something good. In the end it will help the party and not me,” he said.
–Agencies