The Hindu : National : Look into the issue urgently: Manmohan tells Patil

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Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Look into the issue urgently: Manmohan tells Patil

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, once again, expressed his concern over the situation in the Nandigram area of West Bengal’s Purbo Medinipur district, and said he has asked the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, to look into the developments urgently.

Mr. Singh’s concern was stated in the reply to a letter sent to him by the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Partha Chatterjee, drawing his attention to the recent spurt in violence in the Nandigram area.

Mr. Chatterjee, who is also the general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, received the Prime Minister’s letter on Tuesday.

Mr. Singh had sent a similar reply to a letter by the president of the Party for Democratic Socialism. The PDS, a constituent of the Trinamool Congress-led Krishi Jami, Jiban, Jibika Raksha (Protection of Land, Lives and Livelihood) Committee, had received Mr. Singh’s reply on Monday.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called on the West Bengal Governor, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, here on Tuesday evening. She later said she was demanding the invocation of Article 355 in the State in the wake of violence in the Nandigram area.

She also reiterated the demand for the resignation of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for his government’s failure to curb the violence in Nandigram.

Ms. Banerjee said her party would call for a State-wide protest against the day’s developments in Nandigram.

The Trinamool Congress leadership has also demanded the sealing of the border between Nandigram and Khejuri, where nearly 1,500 people, who were driven out of their homes in the face of hostilities in Nandigram over the past few months, were sheltered.

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