Parties face plethora of grievances for redress

Hyderabad: It’s time for people to put pressure on politicos and parties to include their issues on top of electoral agendas. Several sections of people are voicing their grievances and demanding that the manifestos of political parties address their grievances adequately.

Many civil society groups have already started reaching out to the political parties to impress upon them the gravity of their issues and the need to sit up take notice of the same. In the last two weeks, many farmers, heritage activists, people working in slums and on civic issues approached parties and held press conferences to rally public opinion in their favour.

Deccan Development Society (DDS) has urged parties of all hues to include the issue of millets in their manifestos. P V Satheesh, its director, stressed for ensuring provision of a fixed quantity of millets to every ration card holder for supplying to the people, especially the weaker sections. He argues: “Commercial crops are taking over the space where millets were grown in Telangana. This trend has to be controlled.”

Heritage activists too plan to approach political parties. Najaf Ali Khan, grandson of VII Nizam, who has been visiting the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) regularly and submitting representations for its restoration, said, “I am going to approach political parties on the issue. It is not just OGH, but several other monuments in the city need restoration. These monuments give Hyderabad its identity and remind us of a glorious past.”

Asif Ali Khan, another heritage activist said, “There is a need to have a separate ministry for heritage and every representative of a constituency should work to protect monuments in his or her area.”

Hyderabad Bastee People’s Federation formulated a manifesto on behalf of almost 60 lakh working class people living in slums in urban Telangana. Bro. Varghese Theckanath, convener for Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights (CHATRI), said, “About 40 per cent of the population in the state lives in urban areas and they are neglected. We want every party to include their development plans for this segment.”

As per 2011 census, 1.36 crore, which is about 38.9 per cent of the state’s total population of 3.5 crore, lives in urban areas. There are 60 lakh unorganised workers in the six municipal corporations and 136 municipalities in the state. They primarily comprise domestic workers (10 lakhs), construction workers (20 lakh), safai karmcharis, auto-rikshaw drivers, vendors, and daily-wage laborers. In the context of the legislative assembly elections, organisations and trade unions of the working class people in the state held a wide range of consultations to formulate a manifesto reflecting their demands.

It is expected that all political parties coming to seek votes from urban working-class people will be sympathetic to these issues affecting the public at large and include the same in their manifestos and assure their resolution, should they be elected to power.