Several political parties on Saturday observed the 10th anniversary of the police firing at Basheerbagh and paid tributes to those who laid down their life while protesting against the power tariff hike by the then Telugu Desam Government.
Leaders of the Left parties, while paying tributes to the martyrs, criticised that the successive governments for exploiting common people in the name of power reforms. Though the government temporarily went back on privatisation following the massive agitation against World Bank influenced electricity reforms, it still was pursuing the same policy, they said.
CPI State Secretary K. Narayana demanded that the Congress leaders, who had joined them in paying homage to the victims of police firing, should also show their solidarity with the families of those killed recently in Sompeta where police fired on those protesting against setting up of thermal power plant.
Senior CPI leader Suravaram Sudhakara Reddy said that the government was once again bowing to the dictates of globalisation policy and people should resist it. CPI (M) State secretary B. V. Raghavulu said that electricity was for people and not for contractors.
APCC general secretaries S. Laxminarayana and P. Narasimha Reddy placed wreaths at the Basheerbagh memorial and observed two-minutes silence in the memory of those killed in police firing on August 28 , 2000. The Congress leaders condemned the dictatorial attitude of the then TDP Government led by N. Chandrababu Naidu.
