Environmental activist Medha Patkar said that V S Achuthanandan should change his focus to national politics to give ‘right direction’ to the Left parties and said that he was a leader who should not limit his activities within Kerala.
Medha was speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Opposition leader at his official residence here on Sunday.
Medha called on the veteran leader around 9.30 a m along with environmental activists including C R Neelakandan. Later, at the conclusion of the two-day People’s Assembly organised by the National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) here, Medha announced that the NAPM would conduct a ‘vehicle yatra’ from Kerala to Pune along the Western Ghats in the middle of August seeking support for the Madhav Gadgil Committee report.
It will begin from a place near Thiruvananthapuram and will culminate in the controversial Lavasa City, sought to be developed in 25,000 acres, in Pune, Medha said.
She also said that the itinerary of the ‘yatra’ would be announced soon.
“We want the Madhav Gadgil Committee report to be implemented in its totality,” she said. She also said that the NAPM was open to a dialogue on the report. “If there are operational problems, what is it that stops Chief Minister Oommen Chandy from discussing the report in public. It should be discussed at the local level. We are not going to insist on implementing every suggestions in the report,” she said.
Medha also said that the NAPM had plans to revive old battlefronts. The Plachimada and Endosulfan agitations will be brought to the Secretariat in the first week of August.
“In the case of Plachimada, we are waiting for the the Chief Minister’s response. The Plachimada Action Council had asked the Chief Minister to get the President’s approval for the Plachimada Tribunal Bill. We will begin our agitation in front of the Secretariat on August 9 if we don’t get a proper response,” she said. Also an indefinite strike on the endosulfan issue would be launched in the first week of August, as the endosulfan package was not being implemented, she said. The NAPM has also offered to organise a ‘roundtable’ on Mullaperiyar issue saying that they wanted to address the safety concerns of the people of Kerala and also to ensure that the livelihood of farmers in Tamil Nadu were not affected.