Anna Hazare to resume protest for Jan Lokpal, farmers' issues from March 23

The Anna protest
 

Social activist Anna Hazare will launch another agitation over Jan Lokpal and farmers' issues in New Delhi on Friday. "This will be a satyagrah for Jan Lokpal, farmers' issues and poll reforms. At least 12 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the last 22 years. I want to know the number of industrialists committing suicide during this period," he said. Hazare has been demanding the formation of Jan Lokpal to keep a check on corruption. An aide of Hazare said the Narendra Modi government has not appointed a lokpal. "The reason given from the government's side is technical," he said. He said according to the Lokpal Act, a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge nominated by him, should be formed and select the Lokpal. "However, as there is no Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha at present, the committee could not be formed," the aide said.

Poll yatra
 

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will kick off the third phase of the party’s campaign in poll-bound Karnataka during a visit on Tuesday and Wednesday. He will address rallies and corner meetings in the coastal and Mysore region of the southern state. Gandhi had undertaken the ‘Janaashirvad Yatra’ in the state by travelling to various regions. He had concluded the second phase of the Yatra on February 26. The Congress is putting all its might to retain its government in Karnataka, which is among the only four states ruled by the grand old party. The  BJP is banking on old warhorse and former CM Y S Yeddyurappa to oust the Congress government.