Date:09/06/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/06/09/stories/2003060905800300.htm

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

TRS relay fast enters fifth day

By Our Staff Reporter

NIZAMABAD JUNE 8. The relay hunger strike undertaken by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti cadres demanding release of four tmcft Singoor water to meet the drinking water needs of Nizamabad and Bodhan towns, entered the fifth day on Sunday.

Around 17 TRS leaders joined the relay fast on Sunday to pressurise the Government to act. The TRS district general secretaries, J. Bapu Reddy and L. Bhupati Reddy, vice-president, D. Vithal Rao, and several mandal unit leaders participated in the relay fast. The TRS leaders charged that they had only demanded drinking water where as the ruling TDP was saying that the Singoor agitation is to gain political mileage.

The TRS district president, A. S. Poshetty, the general secretary, Narla Ratna Kumar, the town president, M. Sudhakar Rao, the Makloor MPP chief, Vakula, the Yedpalli MPP president, Bhaskar Raju, the Banswada MPP, Srinivas and the Banswada ZPTC member, Kothakonda Bhaskar, called on the fasting leaders. The CPI (ML) New Democracy leader, Akula Papaiah, and a couple of municipal councillors besides the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sangh district secretary, Velpur Bhumaiah and IFTU leader, Murali, also visited the hunger strike camp.