State occupied Dalits land: Left parties in Warangal

Warangal: The Left parties demanded the State government to stop the illegal construction of double bedroom houses taken up on land belonging to Dalits. The leaders of CPI, CPI (M), MCPI and CPI-ML New Democracy, who visited the construction site at New Shayampet in the city on Wednesday, criticised the government for forcefully acquiring the land from the possession of Dalits.

The leaders said that the then government in 1973 allotted eight acres to Dalits. Since then the Dalits have been in possession of the land. Against this backdrop, the government set the foundation stone for the construction of double bedroom houses in April 2018, without giving any information to the Dalits. Even though the Dalits had approached the district administration and staged protests several times, the government took up the construction of double bedroom houses in the said land, the leaders said.

In this backdrop, the Dalits moved the High Court for justice. Following which the High Court issued orders of status quo on August 17, 2018.

The work on double bedrooms stopped for a while and restarted again in April 2019, the leaders said. Even though the court redirected the administration to maintain the status quo, the contractor is continuing the construction with the support of authorities, the leaders alleged.

CPI Warangal district secretary Mekala Ravi, CPM district secretary Sarampally Vasudeva Reddy, MCPI district secretary M Babu Rao and CPI-ML new Democracy district secretary Balraj demanded the government to provide justice to Dalits.

They said that the State government, which promised to give three acres land to Dalits, is in fact encroaching their land. The leaders threatened to launch agitations if the government fails to provide justice to the Dalits.

Left leaders G Prabhakar Reddy, U Nageshwar Rao, Ch Ravi Kumar, Shayampet land oustees Manda Kumar, Kotte Shiva, V Venkateshwarlu, V Mallesham, K Bikshapathi, D Dayakar Raju, Umesh, Mary, Prabhavathy, Pravallika, Vishal, Ailaiah and Devadas were among others present.