Farmers Occupy Gali Janardhan Reddy Lands

The unchallenged dominance of Gali Janardhan Reddy in Karnataka is fast fading away after his arrest by the CBI in OMC illegal mining case. Thousands of activists of the Communist Party of India, farmers and Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam members took control of the OMC and stockyard fields for nearly five hours, ransacking the weigh-bridge office and railway siding. Red flags of the CPI began to fly on the properties of former minister G Janardhana Reddy.

CPI supporters barged into the 70-acre mango farmland on the Karnataka–Andhra Pradesh border. They also raided 250 acres of land in Obulapuram and hoisted CPI flags.Reddy’s security guards’ rooms and some buildings were ransacked.

The Andhra Pradesh government had acquired land for industrial development and allotted it to Obulapuram Mining Company and other mining companies. The land earlier belonged to residents and farmers, and the government’s move had received stiff resistance. Those whose property was acquired have marked their property with stones and logs. They also vent their ire at the site office equipment, besides razing three security sheds to the ground.As the protest turned violent, many of the guards and workers deployed at the mine fled the scene, while the local police remained mute spectators. Activists later hoisted a red flag on the mine hillock to mark their control over the land and shouted anti-Reddy slogans. “Land belongs to farmers, not to Gali,” they wrote on walls, office sheds and OMC hoardings.