CPI leaders arrested for occuping temple lands

Vijayawada, June 15 (UNI) Communist Party of India (CPI) Andhra Pradesh State Secretary K Narayana and many of its leaders were today arrested for forcibly occuping about 13 acres of Kanakadurga Temple and Balaji matam lands at Rajarajeswaripet here.

The agitation was taken up by the party to demand the state government to provide house sites to the poor.

About 3,000 party activists including its leaders occupied the lands by pitching party flags and later erected huts.

Town Police Sub Inspector Uma Maheswara Rao told UNI that the arrested leaders would be produced before the city court this evening.

Tension prevailed when the demonstrators refused to vacate the lands despite repeated appeals by the police. Police arrested about 50 party activists and leaders and forcibly evicted the rest from the land, he said.

Talking to newspersons before being arrested, Narayana said the state government could not suppress the party's agitation through arrests and resorting to lathicharge on the party activists.

He demanded the implementation of Koneru Ranga Rao Committee Report on land reforms.

UNI