HYDERABAD: What better day to protest than Republic Day? That too, for a good cause? Over 200 people including schoolchildren, took to the streets on Thursday to voice their opposition to the ongoing Hyderabad Metrol Rail project and other local issues like free flow of illicit liquor and insufficient rations for the poor.Supported by activists of the Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights (Chatri), Citizens for Better Public Transport and the State Human Rights Forum, residents of Moosanagar, Kamalnagar, Shankarnagar, Vinayak Veedhi and Chaderghat Darwaza gathered at the Chaderghat Chaman and hoisted the tricolour.Addressing the gathering, social scientist C Ramachandraiah of the Citizens for Better Public Transport, said, “the map of the Hyderabad Metro Rail along the Chaderghat stretch shows that three government schools in the area, namely Azampura government school-1 & 2 and the City model school will have to be demolished.” According to him, displacement or rehabilitation cannot be a solution since around 600 children from the nearby slums would be affected. He said that with the support of locals, his organization would stage a major demonstration on January 31 at the three government schools which are in the line of fire. Apart from the metro rail issue, the protestors voiced their concern over the free flow of illicit liquor too. They took a pledge to discourage the consumption of liquor by youth. Md Ashfaq of Chatri said, “We have pleaded with the authorities to check the sale of illicit liquor and prevent its production but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears.”He warned that locals themselves will do the government job if the authorities continued to remain silent. “We do not want any form of liquor and gambling amidst our families and children,” he said. Human Rights Forum state president Jeevan Kumar, who also extended his support to the protestors, demanded that the quota of rations for the poor be raised. He said, “Currently, a family receives around 20kg of rice, half kg sugar and 4 ltrs of kerosene. We demand 35 kg of rice per family per month, 18 ltrs of kerosene and 2 kg sugar every month.” He pointed out that the ration of kerosene during the previous government was 10 ltrs, which was reduced to 6 ltrs and later to 4 ltrs. “When cost of living is rising, the ration for the poor has been diminishing,” he said.
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