Varla Ramaiah responds to undesirable queries raised by DGP on Lokesh padayatra

The Director General of Police (DGP) in his letter to the TDP politburo member, Mr Varla Ramaiah, has raised several unwanted and undesirable queries on the party national general secretary, Mr Nara Lokesh's pada yatra.

Strongly responding to the DGP's missive, Mr Varla Ramaiah has made it clear that this is not for the first time in the history of the nation that a leader is undertaking a pada yatra. "The former prime minister, Mr Chandra Sekhar, the former chief ministers of the State, the Late NTR and the Late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the former chief minister, Mr Nara Chandrababu Naidu, and those who fought for Independence like the Mahatma Gandhi also went on pada yatra," he pointed out.

Mr Varla Ramaiah also mentioned in his letter the recent Bharat Jodo yatra by the AICC leader, Mr Rahul Gandhi and the pada yatra by Ms Sharmla, the sister of the Chief Minister, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy. The TDP leader requested the DGP to take measures to provide proper security for the 'Yuva Galam', to be undertaken by Mr Nara Lokesh, from January 27.

The TDP politburo member said that Mr Lokesh, through his pada yatra, intends to bring awareness among the public on various issues plaguing the State like lack of employment opportunities, poor welfare and development in the State. Stating that the Yuva Galam is tentatively planned to begin on January 27 from Kuppam to Itchapuram covering around 125 Assembly segments spread over 4000 km, Mr Varla Ramaiah said that the detailed schedule of the pada yatra will be provided to the local sub-divisional police officers (SDPOs) ahead of the schedule to enable the local police to provide necessary security arrangements.

"In a democracy, it is quite natural that the political parties meet the public through various means to move closer to the people to address their grievances and the pada yatra is only one such mechanism. The number of people taking part in the pada yatra depends on the local issues and it is the duty of the local police to estimate and assess as to how many people will be taking part in the programme," Mr Varla Ramaiah said in his letter.

He also made it clear in his letter that the detailed schedule, including the night halts will be intimated to the local police and stated that some vehicles like prachara ratham, two sound vehicles, four vehicles in Mr Lokesh convoy and a media van will form part of the vehicles accompanying him.

"Freedom of speech and freedom to assemble peacefully are guaranteed under the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution," Mr Varla Ramaiah said in the letter and made a request to the DGP to provide adequate security for the leaders and the general public participating in the pada yatra.

The TDP leader said that the leaders of the Opposition parties are being subjected to various kinds of harassment and are not given permission to organise even peaceful programmes. "As the Additional DG, Mr Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, has mentioned it is the fundamental right of the parties to organise meetings in a peaceful manner and it is not proper to raise unwanted queries," Mr Ramaiah said in his letter.

Requesting the DGP to provide proper security to Mr Lokesh's pada yatra, Mr Varla Ramaiah stated that three leaders from the TDP will meet him to clarify if he has any other doubts on the letter.