The Hindu : Front Page : A.P. land issue: Left to meet Sonia Gandhi

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Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
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A.P. land issue: Left to meet Sonia Gandhi

Special Correspondent

CPI, CPI(M) endorse agitation

NEW DELHI: The Left parties, leading a struggle on the land issue against the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Government in Andhra Pradesh, have decided to take up the issue with the central leadership of the Congress.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat and his CPI counterpart A.B. Bardhan are expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi early next week.

Ms. Gandhi is scheduled to travel to flood-hit areas of Assam and Bihar on Tuesday.

According to sources in the Left parties, the leaders would convey the set of demands on which the State units had been conducting the agitation.

The stand of the CPI and the CPI (M) included the setting up of an independent commission to implement the recommendations of the Koneru Ranga Rao Committee. Subsequently, the CPI (M) Polit Bureau and the CPI National Council endorsed the agitation being conducted by the State units.

The Left parties have announced their intention to embark on the second phase of the agitation with greater intensity in case the Government fails to accept their demand.

After the police firing of July 27 that resulted in the killing of seven persons, the State units had demanded resignation of the Chief Minister.

The move of the central leaders of the Left parties comes in the wake of an intense effort by Dr. Reddy, during his two-day visit this week, to clarify the situation with the party high command.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh said the State Government could consider regularising Government lands earmarked by the Left parties.

The issue could be discussed but nothing could be done for the land held by private people which had been forcibly occupied by agitators.

Mr. Singh said that he planned to meet the Left leaders to seek their cooperation, stating that the larger goal of the Congress and the Left was to ensure that the homeless were given houses.

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