People's Democracy

 Land Struggle Spreads To New Areas

M Venugopala Rao

The intensified second phase of land struggle of the poor for house sites and arable land in Andhra Pradesh is spreading to new areas and participation of the poor is increasing in different districts.

B V Raghavulu, Polit Bureau member and state secretary of the CPI(M) participated in the land struggle at Ambaripet in Adilabad district on August 29, 2007 and ploughed the land occupied by the poor. Addressing a meeting organised on the occasion, Raghavulu questioned the propriety of the proposal of the government to form an advisory council on the land issue to be headed by the chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. Pointing out that when the chief minister himself had to take measures on the issue, he questioned ‘whom would he advise?’ Reiterating the demand of the CPI(M) and the Left parties for setting up an independent commission on land issue, Raghavulu made it clear once again that the land struggle would continue till then.

Led by V Srinivasa Rao, central secretariat member of the CPI(M) and other leaders of the Party, poor people entered into Narne estates at Bibinagar in Nalgonda district and put up Red flags. The poor had foiled all the efforts made by the police to dissuade them from entering into the estates. The police made public announcements threatening the poor people of foisting cases against them and sending them to jails, imposed prohibitory orders and warned the owners of autos and jeeps not to carry the poor in their vehicles and even deployed the police on a large scale. None of these could prevent the determined poor from taking part in the land struggle. During the first phase of the struggle, the police destroyed overnight about four thousand huts erected by the poor in the lands of Narne estates. The police arrested Srinivasa Rao, Nandyala Narsimha Reddy, Nalgonda district secretary of CPI(M) and B Chandra Reddy and about one hundred poor people and released them later.

P Madhu, Central Committee member of the CPI(M) and MP, ploughed the land occupied by the poor in Srikalahasthi mandal in Chittoor district. The poor occupied about 3600 acres of land in this mandal. Speaking on the occasion, Madhu said that under the leadership of the CPI(M), the poor had occupied about two lakh acres of land in the state so far.

At Rajahmundry in East Godavari district, the poor led by B Venkat, state committee member of the CPI(M) and T S Prakash, district secretariat member of the Party, occupied government lands. The police arrested them and cases were registered against them.

On the August 31, the poor occupied about 50 acres of land encroached by Congress MLA Vatti Vasanta Kumar at Chollangi mandal in East Godavari district. Along with Venkat the police arrested about one hundred poor people. The police arrested Sarampally Mallareddy, state secretariat member of the CPI(M), and another 150 people when they occupied the government land encroached by a Congress leader at Tangallapalli in Karimnagar district. P Madhu ploughed the government land occupied by the poor at Chillakur in Nellore district. Thammineni Veerabhadram, Central Committee member of the Party and MLA, ploughed the land occupied by the poor at P Narayanapuram in West Godavari district. Under the leadership of M A Gafoor, state secretariat member of the CPI(M) and B Narayana, Cuddapah district secretary of the Party, the poor occupied the land encroached by a corporator of the Congress party. The poor led by the CPI(M) occupied lands in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Guntur, Vijayanagaram, Srikakulam, Warangal, Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts.

Led by B V Raghavulu and K Narayana, state secretary of the CPI, and other leaders, and carrying Red flags, the poor trekked long distances and occupied assigned lands under the illegal occupation of Ramoji film city and Sanghi industries on the outskirts of Hyderabad on September 1, 2007 and put up Red flags. The police were deployed on a large scale and they tried to obstruct the rally of the poor to these lands by threatening them and arresting some of the leaders and hundreds of the poor on their way to these lands. They even tried to mislead the leaders and divert them in order to prevent them from reaching the lands. The leaders and the poor reached the lands and planted Red flags even on hillocks on the lands. The police arrested Raghavulu, Narayana, B Venkat, convenor of the struggle committee for land of 195 mass organisations, CPI MP Aziz Pasha, CPI(M) MLA M Narsimha, D G Narashima Rao, Ranga Reddy district secretary of the CPI(M), K Ramakrishna and Balamallesh, CPI leaders, and others and released them later.

Speaking on the occasion, Raghavulu and Narayana said that the government was adopting double standards even in dealing with the land struggle. They pointed out that the police, who had not obstructed the leaders and the poor when they were planting Red flags in the lands of Ramoji Rao, tried to obstruct them when they were going into the lands of Sanghi. They criticised the government for trying to suppress the land struggle of the poor, while providing protection to thousands of acres of lands encroached by these industrialists and media barons. Raghavulu and Narayana questioned the Congress leaders, who announced that they would also participate in the land struggle of the Left if they came to occupy lands of Ramoji, as to why they had failed to participate in the struggle.

Led by V Srinivasa Rao, the poor people took possession of the land, which was under illegal encroachment of a former sarpanch at Venulapadu in Prakasam district. The poor occupied about 3000 acres of barren land at Adoni mandal in Kurnool district. Nomula Narsimhaiah, leader of the legislature party of the CPI(M) ploughed the lands of state seed farm near Tangadanche of Joopadubangla mandal.

On September 2, occupation of land by the poor continued at several areas in the state. Addressing the poor, who occupied land at Ameenpur in Medak district, V Srinivasa Rao lashed out at the chief minister for trying to ridicule the struggles of the poor, while he himself participated, along with the Left parties, in the movement against hike in power tariff when he was in the opposition. The police arrested about 300 people led by KVPS (Struggle Committee against Caste Discrimination) who occupied land at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. Led by Nomula Narsimhaiah, the poor occupied ceiling lands at Jaffargadh area in Warangal district.

On September 3, the poor people occupied lands earlier allotted to the poor but encroached by former MP of the Telugu Desam Party, R Ramachandrayya, at Potulamadugu village in Mahabubnagar district. Speaking on the occasion, V Srinivasa Rao found fault with the president of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, for not saying a word about the land struggle during her visit to the state.