Anna Hazare leaves for Wardha ahead of 'padyatra'

MUMBAI: Social activist Anna Hazare, who has announced a 1,100-km padyatra (foot march) to put pressure on the Central government against 'anti-farmer' provisions in the Land Acquisition Bill, today left for Wardha to hold deliberations on the march.

"Annaji left from Pune for Wardha, where he will attend a meeting tomorrow regarding the march," his aide Datta Awari told PTI over phone.

The schedule of the march will be decided in the meeting, he said.

The padyatra is scheduled to begin from Gandhi Ashram at Sewagram in Wardha and will end at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, Hazare had said recently.

The march, on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi's historic Dandi march, is anticipated to take around three months to cover the distance till Delhi.

Hazare had last month staged a two-day protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi during the Parliament's budget session, under the banner of Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan Nyas.

Several farmers' groups had supported the stir. Expressing his displeasure over the response given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his last month's protest, Hazare had said, "Farmers' groups from various states staged protests on February 23 to 25 last month, after which the Central government had to promise the farmers that if the Land Acquisition Ordinance was doing injustice to farmers they were ready to change it."

The decision to launch the 'padyatra' was taken after holding talks with peasant leaders and farmers' unions in order to put pressure on the government, the activist said.

"We will also appeal to the farmers across the country to court arrest at the local level," he said.