By IANS
Hyderabad : At least 10 persons were injured, one of them seriously, when hundreds of workers of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) clashed with the police while trying to lay siege to state revenue minister Dharmana Prasad Rao’s house here.
Tension prevailed in the high security Ministers’ Quarters in the upmarket Banjara Hills neighbourhood as CPI-M activists, mostly women, broke the police barricades and entered the VIP zone in an attempt to lay siege to the minister’s house. The area has houses of several state ministers.
The protest was organised as part of the ongoing “bhuporatam” or land agitation by the Left parties for distribution of land among poor landless.
Carrying red flags, the activists and the party sympathizers forced their way into the area, breaking the police barricades. Additional police force, including women personnel, rushed to the area to control the crowd. Police had a tough time controlling the slogan-shouting protesters.
During the clash with the police, eight activists were injured. A woman activist was seriously wounded. Two policemen also received injuries.
More than 1,500 protesters were arrested and sent to various police stations. Some women alleged that policemen beat them up. They said the agitation would continue till all poor are allocated plots in housing sites.
“We have come here to demand a house because we are poor and living in rented houses. The policemen have mercilessly beaten us,” said a woman, who took part in the protest.
Meanwhile, Prasad Rao said the protest by the Left parties was beyond his comprehension as the state government was taking all steps to ensure that every landless gets land and every houseless poor gets a house. “When we have been constructing thousands of houses for the poor and distributing surplus land, where is the need for this agitation?” he asked.
For the last five months, CPI-M and the Communist Party of India (CPI) have been running a statewide agitation demanding land and houses for the poor. The activists have encroached government and even private lands, pitched red flags and erected temporary huts at many places, leading to clashes with the police.
Seven workers of the CPI-M were killed in the police firing during a protest at Mudigonda in Khammam district on July 28.
The Left parties launched the second phase of the “bhuporatam” on Aug 22. They are asking the government to constitute a land commission for distribution of land among the poor and implement recommendations of a committee formed by the government to look into the land issue.