People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

Thousands Picket Collectorates Demanding Drought Relief  

THOUSANDS of people, leaders and workers belonging to the 9 Left parties, including the CPI(M) and the CPI, conducted picketings at all the district collectorates on May 16 and 17.  They were protesting the callousness of the state government in taking  up relief measures in drought-affected areas in the state at the call of these parties. They were also demanding implementation of drought relief measures properly, extension of the mid-day meal scheme to the old people and pregnant women and prevention of misuse of rice intended for drought relief and a stop to the irregularities in distribution of old age pensions.

While the picketings were conducted for 48 hours in Guntur, Cuddapah, Kurnool, Anantapur, Warangal, Nalgonda and Karimnagar, in other districts the picketings were conducted for one day, either on the 16th  or the 17th. At several collectorates, the police resorted to  indiscriminate lathicharge and arrested thousands of people,  leaders and cadres of these parties. More than 40 workers of the Left parties were seriously injured in the lathicharge.

As a result of these picketings, the collectorate offices wore a deserted look, with their staff being prevented from entering their offices by the picketers.The police resorted to lathicharge at collectorates in Hyderabad, Kurnool, Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, Ongole, Karimnagar and other areas.  Protesting against the police lathicharge and  arrests,  the people conducted rasta roko  in Karimnagar and  Warangal  and held a protest demonstration in Nalgonda. B V Raghavulu, CPI(M) state secretary and K Ramakrishna, state secretariat member of the CPI participated in the picketing at Anantapur collectorate office.   

In separate statements, the Left parties condemned the police lathicharge on the picketers.  Koratala Satyanarayana, member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M), expressed concern at the inhuman lathicharge on the picketers by the police. He took strong objection to the behaviour of the police in removing tents and  plates from the picketers who were having their meal duringthe picketing in Cuddapah and Mahaboobnagar.  Koratala demanded the government to speed up the relief measures at least from now on and withdraw all anti-people orders issued by it.