ANDHRA PRADESH

CPI(M) Struggle Demanding House Sites, Houses &

Ration Cards To The Poor Successful

• YSR Govt Forced To Consider Demands

• Indefinite Hunger Strike Withdrawn

• Mammoth Victory Rally

                                                                       M Venugopala Rao

A view of the massive CPI(M) rally held in Hyderabad on July 20

THE almost one-year-long campaign-cum-struggle of the CPI(M) on the problems of the urban poor  succeeded in eliciting the response of the state government with specific decisions and assurances on their demands. During the discussions, which lasted for almost three and a half hours, between the delegation of the CPI(M) leaders comprising B V Raghavulu, Koratala Satyanarayana,  T Veerabhadram, P Ramayya, P Madhu, M A Gafoor and Nomula Narasimhaiah and the minister for home, K Jana Reddy and minister for municipal administration K Ranga Rao on July 20,  the CPI(M) leaders explained the problems and demands of the urban poor.

The government  agreed:

1. To set up a committee of senior officers of the departments concerned to study the issue of encroachment of lands and submit a report with suggestions for distribution of sites.

2. To extend time limit of G.O.No.508  relating to regularisation of encroachments till the end of next March and to issue orders to this effect and take steps for regularisation.

3. Agreed to construction of houses under Rajeev Gruhakalpa on G+2 (ground floor + two stories) and G+3 basis in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam municipal corporations. Steps would be taken to construct G+1 houses in the newly formed municipal corporations and all other municipalities, subject to availability of land. 

4. Gave assurance to make higher allocation of funds to facilitate allocation of house sites to the people of weaker sections who applied for houses and house sites.

5. Phase-wise allotment of house sites, after ascertaining  authenticity of the applications received by the government so far and subject to availability of land.

6. Regulations will be relaxed to allot houses under Rajeev Gruhakalpa to the people living in slums on the basis of seniority.

7. For encroachment regularisation and purchase of lands, the cabinet would discuss and decide on allocation of Rs 100 crore to the department of social welfare.

8. Agreed to amend the G.O. issued earlier banning allocation of house pattas in Hyderabad and  Ranga Reddy districts.  Agreed to allot house sites wherever available, if not in all areas.

9. In the past, wherever pattas were given, without showing the land in villages and towns so far, it is now agreed to take up the task of showing the sites. 

10. A policy on development of slums would be announced shortly. Discussions would be held with officers concerned and experts and political parties and their views elicited to formulate the policy. 

11. New ration cards would be issued to new applicants first in both the urban and rural areas.  Later, old cards would be renewed.   Agreed to examine the issue of withdrawing cases registered in connection with the struggles conducted to bring the issues to the notice of the government.  A decision will be taken after consulting the chief minister.

12. 800 cases registered by the Police during such agitations and movements conducted before 2004 were withdrawn.  The minister for home is examining the issue of withdrawing another 800 cases.  Decision will be taken soon.

After the discussions, both the ministers, along with the leaders of the CPI(M), came to the camp of indefinite hunger strike, explained the decisions taken by them and offered lemon juice to the leaders to end their six-day hunger strike.

Later addressing public meeting at Nizam college grounds, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and state secretary B V Raghavulu announced that it was a victory for the people’s movement conducted by the CPI(M).  However, he made it clear that the struggle would not be stopped till the problems of the poor were solved and that organised and united struggle of the people was the weapon to get the assurances given by the government implemented.  Behind the indefinite hunger strike of the leaders of the CPI(M), the Party had no vested interest, except the difficulties being faced by the poor people, he said.  The CPI(M) had taken up the struggle with a view to move the government that was not willing to hear, respond and move, Raghavulu said.  Assistant secretary of state council of the CPI, Dr K Narayana, CPI(M) leaders P Madhu, T Veerabhadram, N Narasimhaiah, Y Venkateswara Rao,  and state president of AIDWA T Jyothi, and M A Gafoor, who presided over the meeting, addressed the mammoth gathering of the poor people.

MASSIVE PROCESSION

A massive procession of the poor people coming from all over the state was taken out on July 20 from Indira Park via Ashoknagar, Himayatnagar and old MLA quarters to the Nizam college grounds where it culminated into a public meeting addressed by the leaders of the CPI(M).  V Srinivasa Rao, central secretariat member of the CPI(M), state secretariat members P Madhu,  Ch Narasinga Rao, S Veeraiah, state committee member B Venkat, secretaries of the Hyderabad city and Krishna and Ranga Reddy district  committees, P S N Murthy, V Umamaheswara Rao and D G Narasimha Rao,  and other leaders led and participated in the procession. Holding banners of chalo Hyderabad from different districts,   placards and red flags of the Party, and playing musical instruments and dancing, thousands of the poor passed through the busy thoroughfares. Some of the tribals participated in the procession in their traditional attire.  People in fancy dress and some of the people holding symbols of houses, indicating their demands,  participated in the procession.  The most striking feature is that, while the participants are the poor dalits, minorities, tribals and other weaker sections, women constituted an unusually larger part.   Their slogans demanding house sites, pucca houses, pattas and ration cards, and CPM zindabad rented the air.  The  rally reflected the seriousness and magnitude of the problems of the urban poor, mostly living in slum areas, and their determination to carry on the struggle to achieve their demands.  All through the route of the procession, traffic came to a standstill.  The colourful rally of the poor attracted the attention of the onlookers and people from their houses and commercial outlets came out to witness the streams of the poor and hear their demands.

INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE

25 CPI(M) leaders embarking on an indefinite hunger strike on July 20

Following the decision taken by the state committee of the CPI(M), 25 leaders of the Party, one each from every district, led by the Party state secretariat member, Y Venkateswara Rao, commenced indefinite hunger strike at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad from July 15, demanding the state government to sanction house sites, houses and ration cards to the poor people and to formulate a slum policy. State committee member K Swaruparani also participated in the indefinite hunger strike. A colourful rally was taken out from the CPI(M)’s state headquarters, M B Bhavan, to Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, in which the Party’s Polit Bureau member and state secretary, B V Raghavulu, central secretariat member V Srinivasa Rao, legislature party leader N Narasimhaiah, and other leaders participated.  Later, central committee member of the CPI(M), Koratala Satyanarayana, inaugurated the  indefinite hunger strike.

Speaking on the occasion, Raghavulu criticised the government for not responding to the demand for sanctioning of house sites, houses and ration cards to the poor, despite repeated representations made by the CPI(M) to the local officers and the chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy during the last one year. He explained that having agitated in many forms for achieving these demands and finding no response from the government, the Party commenced the indefinite hunger strike.  Raghavulu found fault with Rajasekhara Reddy, who had termed the former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu a gulam of the World Bank, for treading the same path of his predecessor. The government was acting as if it had vowed to eliminate, rather than improving, slums in urban areas, he said. Raghavulu demanded the government to appoint a high power committee to solve the problems.

Koratala Satyanarayana said that the decision to go on an indefinite hunger strike was taken to teach a lesson to the government, which continued to be dormant even after different agitational programmes were taken up by the CPI(M) for the last one year on these demands of the poor in urban areas. Central committee members of the Party, Thammineni Veerabhadram, Paturu Ramaiah, Mallu Swarajyam, state secretariat member Sarampalli Mallareddy and N Narasimhaiah asked the government to meet the demands of the poor.

Earlier, the CPI(M) had requested different political parties to bring pressure on the government to solve the problems of house sites, houses and ration cards to the poor, besides formulating a policy for development of slums and changing its policies to benefit the poor. In the letters addressed to this effect to the presidents of various parties, K Kesava Rao (Congress),  Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), N Indrasena Reddy (BJP), K Chandrasekhara Rao (TRS) and state secretary of the CPI, S Sudhakar Reddy, Raghavulu explained the seriousness of the problems being faced by the poor in urban areas.  Nearly 40 lakh people have already applied to the government for sanctioning of house sites, pucca houses and pattas.  He underlined the need for taking up housing programme to the poor in slum areas where they have been dwelling, and immediate stopping of demolition activities and shifting of the poor to the outskirts. Raghavulu explained the need for sanctioning of new ration cards before notification for municipal elections was issued.  Explaining that dalits, tribals, minorities and weaker sections have been facing these problems, he requested the political parties to bring pressure on the government to solve these problems. The state committee of the CPI(M) submitted a letter on similar lines to the minister for revenue, D Prasada Rao.

Earlier, a round-table meeting, organised by the CPI(M) at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram on these issues on July 16, demanded the government to set up all-party monitoring committees at the district-level  to solve the long-pending problems of the poor.  Leaders of different political parties wanted the government to appoint a sub-committee with ministers and higher officers and try to solve these problems, besides convening an all-party meeting immediately.  Congratulating the CPI(M) for bringing different political parties to the same platform on problems of the people, they underlined the need for bringing pressure on the government unitedly to solve the problems of the poor.  Paturu Ramaiah presided over the meeting. 

SOLIDARITY & SUPPORT

Expressing solidarity and support to the indefinite hunger strike of the leaders of the CPI(M), mass hunger strikes, ranging from  a period of 24 hours to 48 hours,  commenced all over the state.  The response to the movement is very enthusiastic, with nearly 10,500 people participating in these mass hunger strikes in 75 municipalities in 19 districts, Raghavulu explained. Fasts unto death were commenced at Nalgonda, Suryapet, Khammam and Warangal.  In Hyderabad hunger strikes commenced at 81 centres in which 2000 people participated. Leaders of the Left parties, CPI state assistant secretary K Narayana, MCPI secretary Venkata Reddy, SUCI state secretary Sridhar, and  CPI(ML) Liberation leader Murthy visited the camp of indefinite hunger strike and expressed their solidarity to the struggle. Every day streams of rallies were taken out by different sections of the people and leaders of the Party and various mass organisations, unions and associations of employees, workers and teachers in support of the struggle. The participants in these rallies visited the camp and expressed their solidarity to the struggle of the CPI(M) for solving the problems of the poor.  They included CITU, AITUC, A P Rythu Sangham, A P Agricultural Workers Union, AIDWA, DYFI, SFI, AIDSO, PDSU(Vijrumbhana), PDSU(Pratighatana), TSU, APUTF, APSRTC SWF, AP Fishermen Association, AP Tribals Association, Unions of BSNL employees, RBI employees, LIC employees, Federations of Central government employees and state public sector undertakings employees, employees of Prajasakti and others.

On the fourth day of the indefinite hunger strike, Raghavulu warned that the struggle would be intensified further, if the government did not respond to the demands of the poor and announced that indefinite hunger strikes would be commenced in all the municipalities from July 22. Even then, if there was no change in the attitude of the government, a bandh would be observed in all the municipalities, he announced.

After participating in the indefinite hunger strike on July 18, a delegation of the CPI(M) members of the legislative assembly and the parliament met the chief minister and submitted a memorandum to him, explaining the demands of the Party.  Responding to the demands, Rajasekhara Reddy promised to set up a high-level committee to solve the problems of house sites, pattas, etc.  The CM also told the delegation that a committee consisting of the ministers for revenue and municipal administration would be formed to discuss the issues with the leaders of the CPI(M).  Floor leader Nomula Narasimhaiah, MLAs P Ramaiah, M A Gafoor, T Veerabhadram, J Ranga Reddy, K Venkatanarsaiah, M Narsimha and members of parliament Penumalli Madhu and Dr Midiyam Babu Rao were in the delegation. The delegation requested the CM to discuss the issues of house sites, house pattas and ration cards in the two-day meeting of the district collectors that is going to take place from July 24 and give appropriate directions to them to solve the problems early. The CPI(M) leaders also submitted to the CM specific information relating to these issues brought to the notice of the Party in the districts.  In a statement, Raghavulu announced that the indefinite hunger strike would continue and that, after holding discussions with the committee of ministers on July 20,  the future course of action would be announced in the public meeting that is going to be held the same day preceded by the massive Chalo Hyderabad procession of thousands of people coming from all over the state in response to the call given by the Party.