Mangalore : CPIM City Committee staged a protest in front of the Mangalore City Corporation office on Monday, demanding sites to poor siteless families in the city limits. The CPIM which has been staging protests for the same cause warned of intensifying the fight if the party’s demand is not fulfilled.

Addressing the protesters, CPIM Mangalore City Committee Secretary Sunil Kumar Bajal said that over 5,000 applications have been submitted to the MCC in last one decade, but no sites have been sanctioned to the applicants.

The CPIM has formed a Horata Samiti comprising of the poor families that have applied for sites, to fight for their rights. Both the BJP and the Congress have been merely making eyewashing statements, but have not addressed the problem.

Recently, when the CPIM helped over 200 people to submit applications seeking sites, the MCC authorities sent a reply note to a few of them saying the documents were not authentic, while remaining applications were just ignored. Let the MCC clarify about the necessary documents to be submitted to get the work done, he said.

CPIM leader Vasanth Achari criticised the authorities for fooling people by claiming that there was no availability of government land in the city, while large portion of government land is given for industrial and business purposes. How was it possible for the government to reserve hundreds of acre land for setting up golf court and other luxuries in Pilikula, when there was no land to distribute to poor, he asked.

MLA J R Lobo and Mayor Mahabala Marla who accepted memorandum from the protesters said that the plan to construct apartments and hand over flats to siteless people was under consideration. “I have discussed with the deputy commissioner on implementing the programme,” Lobo said.