The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mamata repeats call to bring life to a standstill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Mamata repeats call to bring life to a standstill

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Sporadic violence continued in parts of Nandigram in West Bengal’s Purbo Medinipur district on Tuesday with the Communist Party of India(Marxist) and the Trinamool Congress that is backing the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh (Resistance against Land Eviction) Committee (BUPC) trading charges of inciting fresh trouble.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who claimed that one person was killed in the day’s violence, repeated her call to bring life to a standstill across the State for 12 hours on Wednesday in protest against “the increasing lawlessness” in the area “and the terror unleashed there by supporters of the CPI(M) in connivance with the police.”

The State CPI(M) leadership has appealed to all constituents of the Left Front, other political parties and the general public to ensure that normality is not disturbed on Wednesday.

Local CPI(M) leaders in Nandigram alleged that activists of the BUPC were continuing their attacks on villagers trying to return to homes they had earlier abandoned in the Ranichak and Satengabari areas. They were forcibly trying to induct them into their ranks and were attacking those who were unwilling, the CPI(M) alleged.

Personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force who are to be deployed in the troubled area are yet to arrive and will set up camps once they do so, Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said. The violence that had broken out in parts of Nandigram earlier in the day was under control, he added. Ms. Banerjee alleged that the vehicle in which the Leader of the Opposition, Partha Chatterjee, was travelling to Nandigram earlier in the day was caught in the firing by CPI(M) supporters.

Mr. Ray also questioned the feasibility of sealing the border between Nandigram and Khejuri given the topography of the region – a move Ms. Banerjee believes will facilitate the restoration of peace in the area. In a letter to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, general secretary of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee Manas Bhunia, has called for the deployment of the Army till normality is restored.

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