Several land struggles for distribution of agricultural land have taken place in various districts of Andhra Pradesh in the past six months. In Guntur District, villagers of Madugula in Gaurazala Mandal have occupied 150 acres of land belonging to various temples which have been under the control of landlords. On 20th July 2004 the district Gen. Council meeting of AIKMS was held at Gaurazala town, which was attended by the villagers also. On 28th July, a huge crowd entered the land and distributed it among 300 people. (Earlier 37 acres of land were occupied in 1997 and in that struggle 150 people were imprisoned.)

In August 2004, party and AIKMS district committees led villagers to occupy 20 acres of land in Jalluru village of Gandepalli mandal, 80 acres in Mallepalli village, 22 acres in ST Rajupuram village and 7.5 acres of choultry land in Ramavaram village of Jaggampet mandal. All these areas are in East Godavari District On 20th August, 200 people started tilling the land and sowing crops in Badri cultivation tank land in Gorsa village in Ukottapalli mandal. In Mallepali village a huge rally of 800 people entered the land for occupation.

Land struggle is going on in the same district in Sakinetipalli village, on the riverbed of Godavari. 165 acres of land belonging to societies is in the grip of a fraud, Prabhakar Rao. Asserting that land belongs to the cultivators, 20 acres of land was distributed to 40 people and struggle is on for distribution of the rest of the land. Similarly, forest and endowment land was occupied in Murari village of Gandepalli mandal. 25.57 acres of endowment land were occupied by landless in Madhavapuram village of Pithapuram mandal. Earlier several programmes were held demanding distribution of these lands. The administration did not respond positively and rather unleashed repression. Then the villagers resorted to occupation of land.

In Nizamabad district, 12 acres of land were occupied and distributed among 18 people in Borgam village. 30 acres were distribution in Mylaram village, more than 300 acres in Gadke village, 10 acres in Nyavanandi village, 33 acres of land in Ramadugu village. These were all forest lands. 40 acres in Uplur village of Kammarpalli subdivision were occupied by party and AIKMS district committees and lower committees. Before the distribution, programmes like dharnas, rasta rokos and propaganda was extensively conducted and the administration was also warned. Land struggle committees comprising of other mass organizations are working to get pattas for their lands.

In Khammam district, 43 acres in Tirla Puram, 12 acres in Ramavaram, 12 acres in Chagarabelle and 19 acres of land in Velerupadu mandal were occupied. The last was worked on by 25 ploughs. When Bu, the litigant, tried to create problems, 60 ploughs were run on the land, 16 more acres were also occupied and cotton was sown. Police let loose repression but the people ignored the same.

Homeless people belonging to Chintur area of the same district occupied 6 acres of forest land (reserve forest) in Trishti Variogudem. The forest officials burnt down their houses and tried to get the people to vacate the land. In turn the people caught the officials and warned them against interfering. The issue went up before the higher authorities, but the people have not let go of their land.

In addition to agricultural land, 10 acres of forest land was occupied by villagers of Rangapet village of Khanapur mandal for house sites. Similarly in Guntur, in Krishnanagar, residents took out rallies for allocation of house sites. When the administration did not respond, on 6th August 2004 a large gathering of people occupied land amounting to 469 acres (it was occupied by Krishna Cement Works) and distributed it to the people. On 12th October, 5 acres of temple and govt. waste land was occupied by poor people and 2 cents of land were distributed for each house site among 140 members.

On 2nd December 2004, a huge dharna culminating in a rally of 3000 people was held in Hyderabad. The dharna was addressed by Com. MNS (President AIKMS) and addressed by Com. V.V. (Gen Sec. AIKMS), Prof. KR Chowdhary, Com. Y. Sambasiva Rao, G. Narsaiah, G. Divakar, and senior journalist V. Hanumantha Rao.

Com. M.N. Swamy said that the land issue is the core issue of the country’s development. Fallow, ceiling, waste, temple and endowment lands are lakhs of acres of land. The ruling classes will not distribute this land to the tillers and the landless and poor peasants must unite and capture the land through struggles. Com. V.V. said people had secured more land through their own struggles and occupations than was distributed by the Govt. He underlined that memoranda and requests won’t get land, which has to be occupied through struggles. Com. YSR called for intensification of land occupation struggles. G. Diwakar demanded that Govt. distribute land and give up repression.