CPI says mid-term polls not imminent, to intensify land stir

Hyderabad, Sep 14 (UNI) Maintaining that mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha or the Andhra Pradesh Assembly were not imminent in the present political situation, the Communist Party of India in Andhra Pradesh today said the CPI, along with CPI(M) and other Left parties, would intensify their land struggle soon.

Denying allegation by the Congress that the Left parties' stir was ''politically-motivated'', CPI State Secretariat members T Lakshminarayana and K Ramakrishna told a press conference here that ''our stir for cultivable land and housing sites to the poor is not for gaining any political mileage. We don't foresee any snap polls either to the Lok Sabha or the State Assembly.'' Asked whether there was still scope for ties with the Congress during the next Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections, they said ''we are ready for ties with the ruling Congress if the Government concedes our demands in the interest of poor people.'' ''The Left parties will shortly come out with a joint action plan to intensify their stir,'' they added.

Stating that poor people, supported by the Left parties, had occupied 1,156 acres of Government land in 29 centres in and around Hyderabad and put up over 30,000 huts, they asserted that the Left parties would not rest till the Congress Government conceded their demand for constitution of a Land Commission and distribution of pattas to the poor.

They alleged that after the Mudigonda firing, police personnel were adopting new methods to suppress their stirs like outraging the modesty of women protestors and reopening past cases relating to agitations launched by them during the previous TDP regime and book them under non-bailable sections of IPC and CrPC.

Expressing dissatisfaction over selection of beneficiaries under Indiramma scheme, they contended that a large number of people who had got houses were not eligible.

Questioning the Government for providing protection to lands encroached upon by influential Congress leaders, they said they would not allow the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and Hyderabad Urban Development Authority to auction any land.

UNI