New Delhi/Hyderabad, July 30: Manmohan Singh has expressed regret over the Khammam police firing and iterated the Centre’s “commitment to redistribute surplus land” to the landless, according to a re-lease from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Singh met Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy at Hyderabad this evening and discussed the situation in Khammam, where six persons fell to police bullets on Saturday.

The bloodshed took place during a Left-sponsored bandh in protest against the Congress regime’s failure to keep its poll promise of handing vacant government land to the urban homeless and the rural poor.

The Prime Minister’s pre-scheduled trip was to review the state programmes on agriculture, infrastructure and investment.

Singh has not spoken to the Left yet on the firing. Sources said the Congress was “in no mood” to be “defensive”.

The party’s contention was that during the violence over land acquisition in Nandigram and Singur and protests against encroachments in Kerala’s Munnar — both states are ruled by the Left — the party did not go to town demanding the chief ministers’ scalp.

“We allowed our representatives from Bengal and Kerala in Delhi to vent their anger. At no point did Sonia Gandhi say Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and V.S. Achuthanandan must go,” said a Congress leader.

“The Andhra chief minister acted swiftly and promptly. He’s sensitive to the miseries of the landless, but the Left should know there are no quick-fix solutions. Otherwise, Nandigram and Singur would not have happened,” he added.