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As part of their Bhoo Poratam (land struggle), hundreds of Left activists, landless labourers and homeless poor marched into Ramoji Film City and Sanghinagar on Hyderabad outskirts and forcibly occupied surplus lands in their possession on Saturday.
Led by Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary B V Raghavulu and CPI state secretary Dr K Narayana, over 2,000 Left cadres, activists from farmers associations and slum-dwellers, including women, gathered near Ramoji Film City around 9 am.
Even as the huge police contingent deployed at the RFC tried to drive away Left activists, they stormed into the sprawling RFC campus and erected Red flags to signal the 'occupation' of surplus lands for distribution to landless and homeless poor.
Subsequently, they gathered at Polkampalli around 11 am and marched to Sanghinagar to occupy the lands of Sanghi Group of Industries belonging to Congress MP and newspaper owner Girish Sanghi.
Cyberabad police later evicted 'illegal encroachers' from both the premises.
Addressing their party cadres, Raghavulu and Dr Narayana said they were occupying the assigned and surplus lands in the possession of RFC and Sanghi Group because the government had failed to take over these lands and distribute these to landless and homeless poor.
They said that Bhoo Poratam was also directed at all those influential persons who were in possession of lands in violation of the Land Reforms and Assigned Lands Acts.
It may be recalled that Rangareddy land reforms tribunal, headed by Revenue Divisional Officer (East) T Manikyala Rao, had served notices to Ramoji Film City and Sanghi Group to submit details of the extent of excess lands they intended to surrender by August 30.
The tribunal had warned that if they failed to submit the details within the stipulated date, the lands held in excess and liable to be surrendered would be selected by the tribunal.
The Land Reforms Tribunal held that the group of companies owned by Ramoji Rao and his two sons was in possession of 1,364 acres of excess land under the AP Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agriculture Holdings) Act.
The total extent of lands held by Ramoji Rao Group was found to be 1,805 acres.
Similarly, the tribunal also ruled that the Sanghi Group, owned by the family of Rajya Sabha member and Vaartha Telugu daily owner Girish Sanghi, possessed 2,015 acres of surplus land under the Land Reforms Act.
The total extent of land owned by Sanghi Group was assessed at 2,956 acres.
Rangareddy district administration had identified 12,000 acres of excess agricultural land in the possession of influential
persons, including an IT major, a global pharmaceutical company and real-estate developers.