Kolkata
Jan 17
West Bengal's East Midnapore constituency was tense Wednesday after
a trade union leader was killed Tuesday night in Nandigaram, where
people have been resisting land acquisition for a special economic
zone (SEZ). The Trinamool Congress claims the victim to be a party
member.
The party called a 12-hour shutdown to protest the death of Arup Das
who was killed with a hard object by some people, Inspector General
of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said here Wednesday.
"He was a truck driver and a leader of the Indian National Trade
Union Congress (INTUC), the trade union arm of the Congress. He was
not a Trinamool member. This incident is not related to land
acquisition protests and it was a personal feud over money that led
to the murder," Kanojia told IANS even as Trinamool Congress alleged
that Das was allegedly killed by Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) men.
Mukul Roy, general secretary of Trinamool Congress, said Das was a
member of the INTTUC (Indian National Trinamool Trade Union
Congress) and not INTUC as claimed by Kanojia.
"We are directly blaming Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya for
the killing. It resulted after a meeting between the chief minister
and CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose in their party office. The
situation in Nandigram will worsen following this," Roy said.
With the chief minister and his party making a retreat from its
aggressive stance, Nandigram was slowly returning to normal as a
peace process had began in the disputed region where violence over
land acquisition left several dead.
Alarmed by the spiraling violence, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Jan 11
asked district authorities to "tear up" a land acquisition
notification by the Haldia Development Authority (HDA) that had led
to a violent backlash from Nandigram villagers.
Nandigram, about 150 km from here, flared up Jan 3 as word spread
that a notification had come out to acquire land for a special
economic zone (SEZ) nearby, to be developed by Indonesia's Salim
Group.
Clashes between angry villagers and ruling CPI-M activists had
claimed several lives.
(c) Boloji.com :
1999–2008 : All
Rights Reserved Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
