India News | Cong Leader Finds Fault with Cops Advising Medha Patkar to Leave from Activist House in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Mar 4 (PTI) A day after social activist Medha Patkar was advised by police to leave an activist's house here over law and order concerns, Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan on Tuesday found fault with the police action.

The house visited by Patkar on Monday was in a locality allegedly affected by the Musi rejuvenation project of the Congress government in Telangana.

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Natarajan, who addressed a convention of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) here on Tuesday, said she was speaking at the event as a 'Sarvodaya karyakarta'.

Natarajan, AICC incharge of party affairs in Telangana, said it is the right of every citizen to undertake a visit as per democratic norms to meet the affected people.

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"If Medha ji is told that she does not have permission to visit Musi river (to meet affected people), then I have to say that such questions (about permissions) are not expected from a progressive government's systems," she said.

It is the right of every Indian citizen to visit the affected people if a people's agitation is built in a democratic and non-violent manner and if the "struggle" is carried out within the purview of democratic space. No one has the right to question it, she said.

Police here on Monday advised Patkar to leave the house of a city-based activist in view of law and order concerns, as there was no prior intimation to police about her visit.

Patkar visited an activist's house in the Chaderghat area near the Musi river.

Police said Patkar is a "national level leader" and that the person who invited her to the house did not intimate the police in advance.

Police had denied reports that the reason for sending her back from the locality was linked to her visit to those allegedly affected by the Musi river rejuvenation project.

Talking about the country's relations with other countries, Natarajan alleged that presently, it is not the external affairs minister nor the "nation" who are deciding about the ties with other countries. "But, these capitalists go with them (to foreign countries) and then it is decided what negotiation can be made with different countries and what trade contract can happen between two industrialists. The foreign ministry got dedicated to deciding this," she said.

Patkar and Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali were among those who spoke at the NAPM's national convention, organised on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)