Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary P. Madhu on Tuesday threatened to revive agitation for land if the State government failed to level the land of Dalits dug up at Devarapalli amid beefed up security last month.
Welcoming the State government’s reported decision to allow the displaced Dalits to once again raise crops, he lamented that the Dalits’ land had been rendered unfit for cultivation by pressing into service a large number of earth movers. The 22 acres of land given to 40 Dalit families in the past should be levelled immediately for them to begin cultivation taking advantage of the present rains, he said while addressing an all-party meeting at Parchur.
As many as 40 Dalit organisations and opposition parties attended the meeting convened to celebrate the victory for the Devarapalli Dalits’ land struggle.
It was because of the united struggle, the government, which initially tried to suppress the agitation by using the police force, “realised its folly and retracted,” said YSRCP Ongole unit president Singaraju Ram Babu.
“Without standing on false prestige Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu should ensure return of land usurped from Dalits under one pretext or the other in Mupala, Posapadu and six other villages in Prakasam district,” said CPI(M) State secretariat member Y.V. Rao.
Cases registered against the Dalits and activists of opposition parties during the land struggle should unconditionally be withdrawn, said CPI(M) Prakasam district secretary P. Anjaneyulu.
CPI district secretary demanded registering of cases under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against those responsible for digging of the ‘Kunta poramboke’' land given to Dalits in the past for undergoing family planning operation during the then Indira Gandhi regime.