Social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday announced that he would go on an indefinite fast from October 2 in Delhi to press for speedy implementation of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) for Defence personnel and to oppose the “anti-farmer” land Acquisition Bill.
Addressing the media in his home village Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district of Mahrashtra, Hazare said that he had already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issues. “I will undertake an indefinite fast at Ramlila Ground in Delhi from October 2”.
In his letter to Modi, Hazare had said among other things: “We have to take care of our soldiers and farmers. Making hollow announcements for their welfare and actually implementing them are different things... In a democracy, the Government should listen to woes of the people and redress them”.
Seventy-eight-year-old Hazare, who himself is a retired jawan, will honour widows and mothers of martyr Defence personnel in Delhi on July 26 on the occasion of Shaheed Din. “After this event, rallies of farmers and former Defence personnel will be held all over the country on the issues of land Acquisition Bill and OROP,” he said.
Ahead of the start of his indefinite fast, Hazare will address two rallies in each of the State across the country to highlight the BJP-led Government’s failure to implement OROP for defence personnel and oppose the “anti-farmer” provisions in the land Acquisition bill introduced by the Narendra Modi dispensation.
Hazare has undertaken many hunger agitations in the past. He undertook several indefinite hunger agitations to demand action against the corrupt Maharashtra ministers from 2007 to 2009.
Hazare had in October last year threatened to go on an indefinite hung agitation over the BJP-led government’s failure to keepm its promise of bringing back money stashed away in Swiss and other international banks. He, however, did not execute his threat.