Sonia asks Reddy to tread cautiously while dealing with Left

New Delhi, Aug 3 (UNI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi has reportedly advised Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to be "extra careful" while dealing with the demands and aspirations of the "friendly" parties, including the Left.

Mr Reddy today held discussions with Ms Gandhi in the context of the police firing and subsequent violence which together claimed eight lives on July 27 during a Left-sponsored bandh demanding expeditious allotment of land to landless poor and rural housing.

Immediately after the meeting, Mr Reddy told mediapersons that he would invite the Left parties for another round of discussion to resolve the contentious issues.

AICC sources said the Party President termed the police firing as "unfortunate" and wanted the Chief Minister to be more cautious while handling agitations, especially those organised by the friendly parties, especially the Left.

She also reportedly asked him to take the Left parties into confidence in future Ms Gandhi, however, expressed satisfaction over the quick steps taken by the state government to provide relief to the victims and order a judicial inquiry.

Mr Reddy said he had explained to the Party President the circumstances that led to the Left-sponsored agitation and the police firing.

Ms Gandhi expressed happiness over the rural and housing programmes of his government which had so far distributed 437,000 hectares of surplus and government land to landless poor. As many as 2.1 million houses had been built for the rural poor in the last three years. The target was to construct a total of seven million such houses in five years.

Replying to a question on the disenchantment of the Left over his government's programmes, Mr Reddy said "What we have been doing for the rural poor and the homeless people and what the Left Parties have been asking for, were the same. But the point of difference was only about how to go about it." He said the doors were kept open for the Left to discuss any issue.

"They are free to air their views and also to organise agitations," he said in reply to another question.

UNI