Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

CPI(M) steps up land stir

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Bhooporatam of the CPI(M) evoked tremendous response on the third day on Sunday, with hundreds of poor people occupying government lands and hoisting the flags in Achchimnaiduthota, Trinathpuram, and Durganagar of the Malkapuram area.

The trend was similar in Sairam Colony of Madhurawada where hundreds participated in the programme.

CPI(M) central committee member S. Punyavathi attended the bhooporatam programmes on the day and addressed the poor. She criticised the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Government for allotting lands to big businessmen while the poor were involved in a struggle for house-sites and land for cultivation. The latter were being lathicharged and sent to jail, she pointed out.

“The poor and the middle classes in the cities are unable to bear the burden of house rentals and therefore are participating in the Bhooporatam.

During the last bhooporatam, the Government promised houses for the poor and conducted surveys to announce housing for 1.5 lakh people using but the construction of houses was not taken up and hence the struggle again,” she explained.

District CPI(M) secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao said that the poor who had occupied the lands at Nallaquarry in Pendurthy on Friday and Kancharapalem Burma Colony and Arilova areas on Saturday were staying on the lands day and night, levelled the ground and even cooked and ate there.

They were keen on getting pattas, he said.

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