The Hindu : National : “No inmates in relief camps in Nandigram”

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Sunday, Jan 06, 2008
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“No inmates in relief camps in Nandigram”

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The relief camps on the outskirts of the Nandigram area, where hundreds of families were sheltered after being forced to flee their villages in the face of 11 months of hostilities, have all been vacated.

“There are no inmates there presently,” State Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said here on Friday.

The State government has provided funds for the setting up of new houses and for repairs to those damaged during the intermittent violence in the Nandigram area over the past months involving supporters of the Trinamool Congress- backed Bhoomi Ucched Pratirodh [Resistance against Eviction from Land] Committee [BUPC] and those of the Communist Party of India [Marxist].

“Situation peaceful”

The situation in Nandigram and its vicinity is now peaceful and development work in the area has resumed, Mr. Ray said. Efforts are being made to cover as much of the area as possible under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, he added.

Eight days after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had visited Nandigram and addressed a rally announcing a development package for the area, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said at a public meeting there on Thursday that the former was “misleading” the people by assuring them that no land would be acquired for setting up industry.

Her meeting marked the completion of a year since the beginning of violence there on January 3, 2007 following protests against the setting up of a chemical hub in Nandigram – a move that was subsequently called off by the government in the face of hostilities against the proposed project.

Rejects suggestion

Ms. Banerjee also ridiculed the Chief Minister’s suggestion that the BUPC be wound up as the question of eviction of land was no longer relevant following the government’s decision and set up a “peace committee” instead.

Mr. Bhattacharjee had no right to make such a suggestion and it is up to the people to disband the BUPC or not, Ms. Banerjee had said.

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