Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Land struggle: People build temporary shelters

Staff Reporter

Over 1,000 people occupy wakf land at Reddipalem

GUNTUR: Led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders, more than 1,000 poor people from all over the city occupied 183 acres of Wakf land at Reddipalem in the city.

The poor people with CPI(M) support had earlier tried to encroach the same land three times and the police foiled their attempt by arresting and caning them. But this time past midnight about 2,000 people came to the site from Reddipalem to Amaravathi Road fully equipped with large bamboo sticks, plastic covers and clothes to build temporary shelters.

While lime powder was used for marking plots and people stay put there in `their’ lands even in the heavy downpour in the afternoon.

Token presence of police led to peaceful `occupation’ of the land. The party leaders demanded immediate cancellation of Government Order to give the land to VGTMUDA and acquire the land for distribution among the poor.

They decided to meet the Chief Minister of Friday and represent him the need for allocation of land to the poor and brief him about their month-long agitation going on in the district for getting house sites for the landless poor in the urban areas, party district president D. Rama Devi said.

With the word of peaceful ‘occupation’ spreading the city, more number of people were converging into the Reddipalem land for seeking house site. This was the first time people had forcibly put temporary structures on occupied lands in the recent times on such a large scale.

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