Corporate land grab: CPI (ML) calls for nation-wide campaign
02 February, 2007
BHUBANESWAR: The Communist Party of India (ML) will organise a nation-wide campaign against corporate land grab in the name of industries and special economic zones (SEZs).
Congratulating the people of Kalinga Nagar on their sustained resistance to land acquisition, national general secretary of the party Dipankar Bhattacharya told mediapersons here that the party supported the struggle against corporate land grab.
Criticising the Centre for allowing SEZ projects, Bhattacharya said SEZ had two meanings. ‘Special exemption zone’ for the capitalists and ‘special exploitation zone’ for the poor farmers.
Stating that the capitalists are going to reintroduce the zamindari system, he urged the Centre to immediately scrap the Land Acquisition Act and the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005.
Bhattacharya said the party was extending support to the ongoing struggle of Dadri farmers in Uttar Pradesh, people of Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal and Kalinga Nagar.
A massive rally will be organised in Delhi on March 23, the martyrdom day of Saheed Bhagat Singh, to protest the massive land acquisition for industries and SEZ projects, he said, adding that similar rallies would be organised in all the states.
Labels: CPI (M-L) Liberation, Displacement, News
posted by Bimal 2.2.07,
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500 CPI (ML) Liberation activists held in Singur
28 January, 2007
In Singur, police today arrested nearly 500 CPI (ML) Liberation activists, including its secretary Kartik Paul, for violating prohibitory orders.
They were protesting against land acquisition for the Tata Motors project
Jamait turns up SEZ heat
Nandigram/Calcutta, Jan. 27: The Jamait Ulema-i-Hind today threatened to step up its agitation against the government if land is forcibly acquired for setting up a special economic zone in Nandigram.
Addressing a rally in Nandigram, which was rocked by violence two weeks ago, Jamait general secretary Siddiqullah Chowdhury said: “Land in Nandigram belongs to the people of Bengal and not the Salims.” He was referring to Indinesia’s Salim Group, which has proposed to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram.
“Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should understand the sentiments of the people before making moves to acquire land for creation of an SEZ here. Our organisation is preparing for a bigger movement against the state government, and the farmers of Nandigram are with us.”
Chowdhury told the crowd that sports and transport minister Subhas Chakraborty had contacted him a few days ago to explain the government’s stand on industry and also sought an assurance from him that the Jamait would co-operate with the state administration.
“I told him that Jamait will talk and co-operate with the government only if an assurance is given that land would not be taken in Nandigram,” the Jamait leader said.
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Labels: Bengal, CPI (M-L) Liberation, Nandigram, News
posted by Bimal 28.1.07,
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Undeclared Emergency in Buddha's Bengal
08 January, 2007
Members of CPI(ML) Fact-finding Mission Jailed while CPI(M) Goons Go on a Murderous Rampage
(Press Handout issued by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya at press conference held in the Party's Central Office in Delhi on 8 January 2007)
The Left Front Government's campaign for forcible acquisition of agricultural land has now turned into a full-scale assault on democracy. Even as Singur remains sealed off from the rest of West Bengal by Section 144, armed CPI(M) goons have now unleashed a reign of terror in Nandigram of East Medinipur district. Eleven peasants have been killed so far in the state-sponsored CPI(M)-led mayhem since 6 January midnight.
Contrary to official propaganda and media reports, the Nandigram murders are not a case of clash between the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress. Nandigram is represented in the Assembly by CPI MLA Iliyas Ahmed and the peasants killed have mostly been activists of the local Save Agricultural Land Committee from some of the affected villages (Sonachura, Garchakraberia, Jalpai, Tekhali, Bhangaberi, Pankhai, Kunjapur, Kangra) in Khejuri and Nandigram I blocks.
The State Government wants to hand over some 20,000 acres of fertile agricultural land including more than 13,000 acres of multi-crop land to the Salim Group of Indonesia and the Ruia group of India . Notices regarding the land-grab move have been issued by the Haldia Development Authority while the peasants of Nandigram (27 Mouzas of Nandigram Block I) and the local panchayats have been kept in the dark.
This has understandably created a major unrest among the peasantry leading to the January 3 confrontation between the police and the local public. It should be noted that on 6 January afternoon the district administration deceived the local people with a ‘peace meeting' before armed CPI(M) men from other areas of East Medinipur moved into the area and began unleashing terror in connivance with the police.
A six member fact-finding team of our Party headed by veteran leader Sankar Mitra wanted to visit Nandigram on January 4. The team was detained by the police at Tekhali Bazar and all the members including Comrade Mitra and AICCTU leader and lawyer Dibakar Bhattacharya, AISA leaders Malay Tewari and Jitendra Kumar (the latter is a student of Jamia Milia Islamia of Delhi who had been visiting Kolkata) and leading Party activists from the district Bipradas Chatterjee and Netai Mandal have since been remanded to police custody under a host of false charges including arson and even attempt to murder!
The attacks on Nandigram peasants are by no means an isolated local incident. Both in Singur and Nandigram, the attacks on protesting peasants have been carried out at the behest of the CPI(M) state leadership's call to teach the ‘disturbing elements a deserving lesson'.
Senior CPI(M) leader Benoy Konar who is a member of the party's Central Committee and State Secretariat and who heads the party's peasant wing in the state, threatened the people of Nandigram with dire consequences unless they mended their ways and his remarks were widely publicised through the electronic media hours before the mayhem started at Nandigram.
Haldia MP and Haldia Development Authority Chairperson Lakshman Seth has also played no small role in instigating and engineering the attacks on Nandigram so no dissenting voice could be raised against the land-grab campaign.
The CPI(ML) therefore demands a CBI probe into the Nandigram killings and arrest of Benoy Konar and Lakshman Seth for instigating the mayhem. All arrested leaders and activists of the CPI(ML) must be released unconditionally and false charges withdrawn.
The Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government must not be allowed to impose an undeclared Emergency in West Bengal . We also strongly condemn the Chief Minister's statement describing the peasant resistance at Nandigram as a communal conspiracy.
Link
Labels: Bengal, CPI (M-L) Liberation, Nandigram, Statement
posted by Bimal 8.1.07,
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Nandigram seethes - Naxalite twist with JNU link
05 January, 2007
Nandigram seethes - Naxalite twist with JNU link
Nandigram (East Midnapore), Jan. 4: Nandigram continued to bristle for the second day, with a CPM office torched, ditches cut across roads and culverts destroyed to block access to villages
But the large police reinforcements sent after yesterday’s pitched battles with villagers stayed put at the Nandigram police station, about 8 km from the action, under orders not to “interfere” and stoke the fireThe SEZ land acquisition does not have the same urgency as Singur.
A lone bit of action by the local police’s Tekhali outpost just beyond Nandigram, however, revealed as strong a Naxalite link as Singur’s. Six CPIML (Liberation) activists were detained, with two of them — Moloy Tiwari and Jitendra Kumar — turning out to be students of Jadavpur University and Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Shankar Mitra, 60, said he was the secretary of Liberation’s labour front and lived in Jadavpur. Bipradas Chatterjee, 45, and Netai Mondal, 30, are from Mahishadal in East Midnapore. “We will not al
low the Salim Group to grab farmers’ land for a special economic zone,” Mitra said.Block officials toured the villages from morning, their loudspeakers blaring that no notice on land acquisition had been served. Yesterday’s attacks on the police and a panchayat office seem to have been set off by a mistaken belief that acquisition of farmers’ plots, earmarked for Indonesia’s Salim Group, was imminent.
But the villagers weren’t buying the assurance. Some 6,000 armed men and women split into groups and held marches across Nandigram under the banners of Krishi Bachao Committee and Jami Bachao Committee.
Around 1.30 pm, some 700 people vandalised and torched the CPM local committee office at Rajaramchak before setting a power transformer on fire at Char Kendamari.
The mob marched on to the home of CPM local committee secretary Niranjan Mondal. Seeing he had fled, it left a parked trekker in flames.
Thousands prowled the approach roads armed with sticks, spears, axes and sickles, watching out for police teams. Roads were dug up in at least 30 places.
Inspector-general (western range) Arun Gupta, camping at the police station with deputy inspector-general (Midnapore range) N. Ramesh Babu, said, “The situation is very tense today. So, police were not sent to the villages.”
Gupta admitted the police had fired in the air yesterday, which the home secretary said was being probed.
Link
Labels: Bengal, CPI (M-L) Liberation, Nandigram, News, Pictures
posted by Bimal 5.1.07,
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