Cops draws Meenakshi ire for stopping Medha Patkar from meeting Musi project victims

Hyderabad: AICC in charge of Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan on Tuesday expressed her displeasure over police preventing social activist Medha Patkar from visiting the families likely to be evicted for the Musi rejuvenation project.Speaking at the valedictory of the four-day national conclave of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) at Exhibition Grounds, Meenakshi criticised police for stopping Medha Patkar. "A progressive political party would not ask citizens like Medha Patkar to take permission before visiting an area. Real politics is about working for a better socio-economic change, and this is possible with the people's movements. Political party workers need to start doing the real people's politics again. There is a need to re-politicise political parties," she said and assured that she would have a regular dialogue with the people's organisations to understand the issues and to see what the govt could do.Medha Patkar went to the Musi river bed at Chaderghat on Monday and spoke to some families likely to be affected by the Musi rejuvenation project. She said the govt should hold talks with the families and convince them. However, after police came to know that she was interacting with the families, they told her to leave citing lack of permission. Meanwhile, the Hyderabad Declaration was passed by NAPM, pledging to resist corporate plunder of land, water, forests, labour, and commons; it condemned the fascist rewriting of history, laws, and citizenship, among others. A pledge was taken to reconstruct a people's economy based on communities, cooperatives, and ecological balance.Meenakshi Natarajan held a meeting with party leaders from Medak and Malkajgiri parliamentary constituencies at Gandhi Bhavan, where they expressed their concerns, seeking her to direct ministers and senior leaders to ensure that officials approve works suggested by them. Meenakshi, along with TPCC chief Mahesh Kumar Goud, assured them that they would look into the issue seriously and advised them to work hard for Congress victory in the panchayat elections. She advised the party leaders not to criticise their own party leaders on social media platforms and warned of stringent action against any anti-party statement or activity.