Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

CPI resumes ‘Bhoo Poratam’

— Photo: K. V. Poornachandra Kumar

Documentary evidence: State CPI secretary K. Narayana showing to forest and police personnel the patta given to the farmers at the Anjuru village near Sathyavedu on Sunday.

TIRUPATI: After a brief breather, the Left parties on Sunday resumed the second phase of their Statewide ‘Bhoo Poratam’, a day after Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy kickstarted from Tirupati the fourth phase of his government’s Statewide land distribution programme targeted to dole out 1.66 lakh acres to the landless.

State secretary of the CPI, K. Narayana led a mob of landless poor into a 2,000 acre chunk of forest/revenue land and planted the party flags all over amid heated altercations with the forest and the police authorities. The venue was Anjuru village in the KVB Puram mandal in Sathyavedu constituency about 60 km from here.

As the forest and the police personnel asked the crowd to vacate the land and disperse, the agitationists, mostly Dalits and STs, turned restive and stayed put since they were all given the pattas to the land more than a decade ago. They questioned the propriety of the forest officials now declaring that the pattas issued by the Revenue Department were ‘invalid’ and forcing them to vacate the lands.

The CPI secretary also showed officials the pattas and pass-books given to the villagers reportedly in 1998 and asserted as such that there was no question of the patta-holders vacating the land until and unless they were allowed to till the land without. Following the deadlock, a CPI note said that the officials had to leave the place having no other option.

Addressing an impromptu meeting on the field, Narayana alleged that even in the 15,000 acres of lands for which pattas were distributed on Saturday by the Chief Minister in Chittoor district, nearly 10,000 acres were the ones where the beneficiaries were already doing cultivation. Among the other party leaders present were the district party leaders P. Harinadha Reddy, Ramanaidu, Penchalaiah, Venkaiah, Bhaskar Reddy .

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

CPI resumes ‘Bhoo Poratam’

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu