MY LAND

MUDIGONDA is a town and revenue-divisional headquarters located 14 km away from Khammam. It is located along the Khammam-Kodad mainroad. Mudigonda mandal is surrounded by lot of villages, of which Vallabhi and Bhanapuram are the biggest villages. The main occupation of the people here is Agriculture. It is also featured with a rural police station, since it is a politically sensitive mandal. There are huge granite quarries and number of granite factories here. The tourist spots at Mudigonda are the Sri LAkshmi Narasimha Swami temple and the Sri Veera Brahmendhra Swami temples. Mudigonda and Venkatapuram are twin villages. Mudigonda surrounded with hills and greenish land.

The communist parties' agitation seeking land for the landless poor inAndhra Pradesh took a violent turn on Juy 28, 2007 as at least eight agitators were killed in the police firing on the protestors here in Mudigonda town.

The policemen, most of them in plainclothes, opened fire on the agitators, including a large number of women sitting under a tent. The driver of a truck, which was stopped by the protestors, was also among the dead.

Telugu TV channels aired pictures of policemen firing several rounds from automatic weapons on the protestors. Most of the victims were shot on abdomen, chest and head. The bodies were lying in pools of blood while the injured were writhing in pain. Wailing men and women had gathered around them.

The police firing evoked sharp reaction from all opposition parties. The main opposition party inAndhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which had backed the day long shutdown, termed the police firing as barbaric and inhuman.Eight persons, including a woman, were killed and eight others injured, three of them critically, when police fired to quell a stone-pelting mob at Mudigonda village inKhammam district as the bandh turned violent.