By IANS,
New Delhi : Protests on issues like a separate Telangana state and the Mullaperiyar Dam were literally lost in the crowd at Jantar Mantar Sunday as Anna Hazare sat on a daylong fast at the site joined by around five thousand supporters.
Team Anna is pressing for a strong anti-graft Lokpal bill that would bring the prime minister, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and lower bureaucracy under its ambit.
D. Nalini, demanding a separate Telangana state has been on a hunger strike for the last three days. Many leaders and luminaries have been visiting her at Jantar Mantar but Sunday she was confined to her small tent.
“There are so many people here. I don’t think anyone would come to meet me,” Nalini who resigned from the post of deputy superintendent of police, Andhra Pradesh in 2009 told IANS.
“I support Anna in his fight,” added Nalini who claimed meeting Swami Agnivesh, parliamentarians and students from Osmania University who vowed their support to her.
Similar was the fate of three youths from Kerala on a hunger strike since Dec 5, demanding rebuilding of the Mullaperiyar Dam.
“Usually parliamentarians and leaders from both the states (Kerala and Tamil Nadu) do come to meet us,” Simmy Joseph, one of the protesters and chairman of Mullaperiyar Deshiya Samrakshana Samithi, told IANS.
The protesters want Tamil Nadu to reduce the water level in the dam to 120 feet from the present ‘dangerous’ level of 136 feet along with the construction of a new dam to replace the existing one.
They were virtually relieved upon learning that Hazare’s agitation was a one-day affair and would conclude by sunset.