FOR A CAUSE: CPI(M) State secretary B. V. Raghavulu riding a cycle rickshaw designed like a hut at a rally in Hyderabad on Sunday. - Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu has asked the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti to take up land agitations, either on their own or join the movement launched by the Left parties to mount pressure on the Government.

Asking TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu to participate in the movement directly instead of asking the lower level leaders, he wanted APCC president K. Keshava Rao to spell out his party's stand on distribution of land to the poor. Expressing solidarity with the Left parties' agitation, he said they would chalk out a joint action plan shortly to intensify the agitation.

Addressing participants of the party's two-day `mahadharna', which commenced here on Sunday, he lashed out at the Government for "unleashing" police force to suppress the agitation. It was doling out vast lands to the "rich" but was reluctant in giving house-sites and pattas to the poor.

It was, instead, registering cases against the poor who took up agitations to press the demand for land. "Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's relatives got 10,000 acres at Rs. 18,000 an acre for Brahmani Steels and they are asking for 4,000 acres more. If the same is given to the poor, there will be no agitation at all," he said.

Probe sought

Mr. Raghavulu sought an inquiry to ascertain the landholdings of politicians, cutting across party lines, and their resumption.

"If this action is initiated, the Government will be left with surplus land after distribution to the poor."

Criticising the amendments made to the Assignment Lands Act, he said the Congress would have to "pay the price" like the Telugu Desam Party Government, if it continued to scuttle people's voice.

Civil Liberties and Human Rights leaders including K.G. Kannabiran, G. Haragopal, exhorted people to take up the agitation, as it was the only way to build pressure on the Government.

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