By IANS
Hyderabad : Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan Monday led activists in occupying a piece of government land in Andhra Pradesh as part of the agitation to demand space for the poor for construction of houses and agriculture.
The 'Bhooporatam', or land agitation, of the left parties got a fillip when Bardhan led hundreds of activists near Kesara in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district in putting up red flags on an open piece of land.
"We are not doing this for our purpose. We are doing this for the sake of the poor. We are occupying government waste land which has gone into illegal possession," he told journalists.
The CPI leader said seven million acres of government land in the state could be distributed among poor. "Our agitation will continue till we achieve our objective," he said, adding that the Congress government in the state was not sincere about the issue.
Bardhan's participation comes at a time when Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is trying to convince central leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) not to support their party's state leadership in the movement.
CPI-M activists and poor men and women have been occupying government lands across the state for two months. The CPI joined the agitation recently.
The CPI-M's land agitation in Nalgonda district turned violent when supporters of a Congress legislator roughed up leaders who had pitched red flags in his two-acre plot in Brahmana Vellemla village.
Protesting the action of Congress legislator Komatireddy Venkatreddy, the CPI-M has called for a shutdown in the district on Tuesday. It claimed that Telugu Desam Party and Telangana Rashtra Samiti had also extended support to the shutdown call.