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News of Jan
3, 2007
Violence Re-erupts in Bengal
over Salim Land Acquisition
Kolkata/Nandigram,
Jan 3
In what can be called a sequel to the Singur movement, violence
erupted again Wednesday over land acquisition for a project for
Indonesia's Salim Group when police fired several rounds to quell
frenzied villagers at Nandigram in West Bengal.
Villagers, who blocked roads with boulders and destroyed a bridge to
prevent police access to their areas, said at least four of their
people, including a 12-year-old boy, sustained bullet injuries in
the unprovoked firing even as police said it was mob attack on the
cops angry over the publication of gazette on notification for the
acquisition.
"At least five policemen were injured in the mob attack. We have no
report of any injury of the villagers," Inspector General of Police
(Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS in Kolkata.
"It was a mob attack on the policemen," Kanojia said. The injured
policemen included two assistant sub-inspectors.
"They have fired at least 15 rounds and injured four villagers. The
injured included a 12-year-old," said Sheikh Khusbani, a teacher
from Nandigram in East Midnapore district while another villager
claimed that the police attacked processionists protesting against
the notification peacefully.
"We will give blood and our life but not our land. We don't want
industry. They are trying to grab our home and hearth," said Samsur,
a villager from Nandigram, summing up the explosive situation in
Nandigram.
Footage shown by news channel Kolkata TV showed villagers digging
roads to prevent police access to the area.
The agitation of the villagers was led by an organisation called
Gana Unnayan O Jana Adhikar Raksha Samity (Committee for Mass
Development and Protection of People's Rights), which is a
constituent of the Singur Krishijami Raksha Committee (Save Singur
Farmland Committee).
"This will continue so long the government continues to keep people
in the dark and not maintain transparency. The Nandigram incident is
a continuation of the Singur movement only," said social activist
Anuradha Talwar.
Talwar, an associate of Medha Patkar in West Bengal, said so long
the government continued to bulldoze the people such things would
happen.
The mob
fury was sparked by a misunderstanding when the villagers mistook
some men from the administration for a toilet project to be those
arriving with notification for land acquisition.
The Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) have called
a shutdown in the area to protest the police action.
Reports pouring in from the East Midnapore district said the angry
mob also set on fire a police jeep in retaliation at Sonachura as
violence escalated over the acquisition of land at Nandigram, about
150 km from here near the Haldia port town, for a chemical hub to be
set up by Salim in collaboration with the government.
Reports said several people were injured in the firing even as
people in large number were gathering in the area triggering fears
of more violence. Heavy deployment of policemen was being made to
deal with the situation as violence was spreading to other villages.
Hardly had the dust settled over the Singur land acquisition in
Hooghly district, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
had a fresh troubled spot to cope with as tension gripped the area
over land acquisition.
In East Midnapore the state government reportedly eyed over 22,000
acres of land for industrial projects.
Recently social activist Medha Patkar visited the area to support
the villagers resisting the acquisition.
On July 31, the West Bengal government signed an agreement with the
Salim Group of Indonesia to implement various developmental
projects, including the setting up of a mega chemical industrial
estate, including a chemical special economic zone (SEZ) at
Nandigram, spread across 10,000 acres in a 50:50 joint venture.
Construction of a four-lane road bridge over the Haldi River, from
Haldia to Nandigram, has also been planned. The proposed bridge
would provide a link between Haldia and the proposed chemicals SEZ
in Nandigram.
The agreement envisions the setting up of several urban development
projects and projects for economic rehabilitation and social
development in respect of those who would lose their land to the
proposed projects.
IANS
News of Jan
3, 2007
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