Date:22/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/22/stories/2007062255890400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Land struggle: CPI activists caned

Protest seeking house sites to the poor turns violent in some districts

Painful struggle: Policemen thrashing CPI activists to foil their attempt to barge into the Collectorate as part the party’s struggle for land in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: The protest demonstrations launched by the Communist Party of India (CPI) demanding house sites and lands for the poor turned violent on Thursday with police resorting to lathicharge in some places to disperse the agitating mobs.

Normal functioning in several offices of District Collectors was paralysed for a few hours as the protestors who gathered outside in good numbers refused to disperse until their demands were conceded. The police caned the agitators, including women, in Warangal, Chittoor and Visakhapatnam when they tried to break the police cordon and enter the Collectors’ offices.

Arrested and released

Several persons, including the leaders of Mahila Samakhya, sustained injuries in the police lathicharge. Scores of CPI leaders and activists were arrested in Visakhapatnam, Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar and other districts. They were, however, released later. A significant feature of Thursday’s protest by the CPI was the presence of the local CPI (M) leaders who attended the demonstrations as a mark of solidarity.

CPI central secretariat member and MP Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy led the protestors in Hyderabad in staging a demonstration in front of the Ranga Reddy Collectorate.

He demanded that the Government ensure time-bound implementation of the Koneru Ranga Rao Land Committee’s recommendations. Only 3.5 lakh acres out of 70 lakh acres of land available had been distributed in the past three years, he said.

CPI State secretary K. Narayana and other senior leaders laid siege to the Sub-Collector’s office in Vijayawada demanding expeditious measures for distribution of land to poor. CPI floor leader in the Assembly Chada Venkat Reddy and several activists were arrested in Karimnagar when they tried to besiege the Collectorate. In Adilabad, party workers took out a big rally while in Anantapur, police foiled a bid to lay siege to the Collectorate.

With heavy police bandobust in place, agitators in Eluru changed their plan of storming the Collectorate and, instead, staged a dharna.