ADAMANT LOT: Women protesters grappling with the police at the Government land at Settipalle village near Tirupati on Friday.

TIRUPATI: High drama was witnessed for the second time in less than a week during the `Bhoo Poratam' (land struggle) jointly being organised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India here on Friday.

As part of their on-going struggle, landless poor led by the rank and file of the two Left parties forcibly entered Government lands at four different places located in and around Tirupati. The four places were Avilala, market yard area, Daminedu village and Settipalle.

While the `land struggle' protest passed off peacefully at three venues, the one at Settipalle village gave tense moments to the police with the demonstrators refusing to vacate despite repeated attempts by the police to do so. At one stage the frustrated police personnel reportedly considered even using water cannons to disperse the obdurate crowd but subsequently drop the idea. With the scene dragging on for a while, more forces landed at the site and tried to forcibly evict the mob from the land, leading to heavy pushing and jostling.

It was at this stage that the mob, mostly women allegedly threw sand and gravel at the police forcing them to wield their batons and chase them out of the venue. About 200 demonstrators were rounded-off and bundled into the waiting police vans.

Injuries

Though none was hurt either in the sand throwing and the cane charge, a CPI (M) activist reportedly hurt his head when the police pushed him into the vehicle while another heading the Building Workers Union swooned reportedly due exhaustion.

Meanwhile, in similar demonstrations held at three other places in the town, police rounded off 600 persons and sent 18 of them to judicial custody. Among those arrested and remanded were CPI (M) district party secretary K. Murali, town party secretary V. Nagaraju, Raja Reddy and Penchalaiah of CPI and four AIDWA activists. Leaders of the Left parties, which were spearheading the struggle vowed to intensify their struggle to resent the indifferent attitude though their statewide agitation had entered the sixth day.

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