Tirupati, Sept 13: About 700 low and middle class families including a large number of women and children and some octogenarians, all from Tirumala, the abode of lord Venkateswara, today held a two-hour demonstration, protesting against Andhra Pradesh government's recent order for acquisition of land around the shrine. The government had ordered Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam to acquire the land around the shrine for expansion and beautifying the area as part of TTD's approved master plan. The protestors, both owners and tenants of these lands, have demanded that government and the TTD withdraw its order or provide suitable land in the Tirumala hills itself, but the go asks the TTD to evict them and provide alternative place to owners only at the hill top, while providing the tenants somewhere in the downhill of Tirupati.

V Krishna, who led the agitation, told a news agency that the stir would be intensified in a phased manner till the demand was met. Bureau Report