Comrade Tirupati Gamango, State Committee member of CPI(ML), was arrested by the Rayagada police when 500 CPI(ML) Liberation activists occupied 24 acres of ceiling surplus land at Banduguda panchayat of Bisam Cuttack block of Rayagada district. Along with Comrade Tirupati, Comrade Rajendra Hikka was also arrested.
The party had been demanding redistribution of ceiling surplus land to local adivasis as per the rules of Orissa's Ceiling Surplus Act but the BJD-led government, while failing to distribute land that is the adivasis' rightful due, instead distributed 6000 acres of land to the MNC Vedanta.
On 4 August, as part of an ongoing land rights campaign led by the party, CPI(ML) activists occupied 24 acres of land. Following the arrest of Comrade Tirupati Gamango, a protest demonstration was held at Gunupur sub-collector's office on 9 August, where a delegation of state committee members including Comrades Yudhistira Mahapatra, Ashok Pradhan, and Muralidhar Behera met the sub-collector. A bail hearing for Comrade Tirupati and Comrade Rajendra Hikka is due on 26 August.
Recently, reports by official panels indicate how the Orissa Government deliberately colluded in the large-scale violation of laws by POSCO and Vedanta. The same Government, while colluding in corporate crimes and grab of adivasis' and peasants' land, is out to arrest and harass activists who are leading adivasis' struggles for land.
