Press Release on the Pro-metro meeting

Citizens for a Better Public Transport in Hyderabad

(A coalition of civil society organizations and individuals)

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Press Release

On Civil Society’s Pro-metro meeting today

Leading anti-corruption movement on one side and promoting a scam-tainted project on the other?  We condemn the initiative of Laxman Reddy of Jana Chaitanya Vedika (JCV) for organizing a pro-metro meeting with NVS Reddy, metro MD, as the main speaker. We also condemn Srinivas Reddy of APSA and Dr. Rao Chelikani for being speakers in such a meeting on Saturday (16 July).

We have no problem with individuals having their opinions on the metro project, but these three persons are leading members in the Citizen Forum Against Corruption in AP (headed by Justice A. Lakshma Rao, former chief justice of Allahabad High Court). It is their responsibility to demand an open debate and transparency on the metro project so that all the doubts are cleared to the public. Even today this project is pushed without sharing its documents and without a public debate. Lack of transparency will result in a scam. Thousands of traders, heritage activists and TRS party have protested on several dimensions of this project.

Instead of demanding or oganising an open debate on this, they wanted to do a big favour to the scam-tainted project. It is because of such meetings that the civil society gets a bad name in the eyes of the public while talking against corruption. They must resign immediately from the Forum Against Corruption.

We would like to congratulate the Traders-JAC, Sultan Bazaar Parirakshana Samithi, and TRS activists for protesting at the meeting venue. (The meeting seems to have ended abruptly with the protesters unwilling to allow the MD to continue speaking.) The metro officials should take this as a lesson and make all documents public and hold public debate, and not depend on dubious organizations to gain legitimacy. More they do this, more discredited the project becomes.

Sd/-

Prof. C. Ramachandraiah, Convenor, Citizens for Better Public Transportation in Hyderabad. Mobile: 94400 35405

Shri S. Jeevan Kumar, State President, Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh.