CPI(M) condemns AP govt on land struggle

New Delhi, June 14 (UNI) Coming down heavily on the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) today said it was repressing the land movement in the state.

''Faced with the struggle of land, the state government is trying to suppress the movement. 2500 people were sent to jail of whom 116 are still in the jail. There have been innumerable lathicharges on the peaceful protesters,'' the party said in a statement here.

The state govenment has failed to implement the election promises of distribution of house sites to the urban poor and cultivable land to the rural landless. Contrary to these promises, land is being made available to ''the rich, real-estate speculators and land mafia,'' the statement added.

Earlier, B Venkat, general-secretary of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Workers' Union, in a letter to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had alleged that the state government was not fulfilling the promises made in the election manifesto and had appealed to Ms Gandhi to intervene and take corrective measures.

UNI