Despite talks with ministers, landless poor march to Delhi

Before the march, Gandhian organisation Ekta Parishad chairman P V Rajagopal, who has led the movement, told reporters here that they will wait for the government's "positive response in writing" on the issues raised by them, till they reach Agra.

"If nothing concrete comes in writing till then, we would go ahead with our plan to march to Delhi to highlight our demands," he said.

Nearly 50,000 people in groups of 1,000 each embarked on the march, with its first stop being Banmore town. They would go up to Morena today and from there would march towards Agra tomorrow.

Yesterday, Union Ministers Jairam Ramesh and Jyotiraditya Scindia had held talks with the activists led by Rajagopal on the issue.

Ramesh invited the agitators to New Delhi on October 11 to hold further talks with him on all their issues.

"We have assured the protesters that the government will consider all their demands sympathetically and try to fulfil them in totality," the Minister had said.