By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Eminent people from various walks of life held a meeting here Wednesday to extend their support to social activist Anna Hazare, who is on a fast unto death in Delhi to press for the introduction of a stronger anti-graft Lokpal Bill.
The supporters included several retired judges, journalists, academicians and students. They decided to launch a sit-in demonstration here from Thursday.
“We held a meeting today and decided to extend our support to Hazare’s cause,” Rabi Das, president of civil society organisation Orissa Jana Sammilani (OJS), told IANS.
“We had planned to stage a symbolic demonstration near the state assembly from today. Since police have not granted us permission yet, we have postponed it to tomorrow,” he said.
“Every day, one of us will observe a symbolic 12-hour fast from tomorrow until Hazare calls off his hunger strike,” he said.
“The Orissa Lokpal, in the past, had made critical observations on the land allotment related to the Vedanta University (in Puri), but the state government neither took any action nor did (Chief Minister) Naveen Patnaik place the report before the assembly,” he said.
“Since the existing Lokpal Bill in the state does not serve any purpose, we want this to be scrapped and the government to introduce a bill which Hazare has been suggesting,” he said.
Veteran activist Anna Hazare’s fast-unto-death in Delhi gathered steam on its second day Wednesday.
Hazare, who has named his fast the second Satyagraha on the lines of the movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi against the British rulers, has been joined by thousands of supporters all across the country and also abroad.