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Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
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Mamata seeks CBI inquiry

Staff Reporter

Protest rally against policies of West Bengal Government

— Photo: PTI

Campaign against SEZ: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: A large number of protesters led by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee held a rally at Jantar Mantar here on Tuesday in protest against “oppressive” policies adopted by the West Bengal Government in dealing with issues of land acquisition and special economic zones (SEZs) in Singur and Nandigram.

Rallying under the banner of Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, the protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar around 1 p.m. and were detained when they began moving towards Parliament House. They were later released.

Addressing the rally, Ms. Banerjee demanded a CBI inquiry into the police firing in Nandigram on March 14. The police officers involved in the incident should be punished, she said.

The protesters demanded that the land belonging to farmers who were unwilling to part with their property be returned to them. They also wanted adequate compensation to be paid to the families of Tapasi Malik, who was allegedly assaulted and murdered in Singur, and others who died in the violence.

Further, the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee demanded that the arbitrary process of land acquisition be stopped and farmers’ lands not be destroyed in the name of industrialisation.

Armed with empty utensils to symbolise that they were being forced to go hungry, the protesters also demanded that the Government either revive the closed industries or use defunct industrial areas for industrialisation. They said the SEZ policy as well as the land acquisition act of the British era should be done away with.

Ms. Banerjee had come to Delhi on Monday along with the victims of violence in Singur and Nandigram to create public opinion against the Left Front Government’s policies in West Bengal.

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