By IANS
Nandigram : West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi Sunday visited the violence-scarred area of Nandigram and assured the people there of security and asked them to send their children back to school.
The governor, who stopped his car at several places to speak to people, also played a game of cricket with the kids at the Nandigram College ground.
He went to the relief camps where Trinamool Congress-led Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) supporters are staying after they were allegedly driven out of their homes during the “recapture” by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres last month.
Gandhi left Raj Bhavan around 6.30 a.m. for Nandigram, in East Midnapore district, around 150 km from Kolkata.
He stopped his car at Chandipur and Hanschera and met the people and also visited Sonachura, Kendamari, Gokulnagar, Adhikaripara, Garchakraberia and Tekhali – areas that were racked by violence since January this year.
The governor went to Nandigram BMT Shikshaniketan relief camp where members of the anti-land acquisition group BUPC have taken shelter after last month’s violence.
“The governor interacted with women and children at the camp and enquired about the present situation in Nandigram. We are feeling a huge sense of relief after his assurance of providing security to us,” Shiekh Asrafull Tullah, a villager, told IANS.
While crossing Tekhali bridge, which connects Nandigram with Khejuri, he ran into a protest by CPI-M supporters who shouted slogans against the governor and demanded why he had come after 11 months when they were at the receiving end of attacks allegedly perpetrated by Trinamool Congress supporters.
Gandhi also visited Satengabari, one of the worst-affected pockets in Nandigram.
Gandhi had earlier expressed his “dismay and cold horror” at the March 14 police firing in Nandigram, in which 14 people were killed.
Hw had criticised the CPI-M’s “armed recapture” of Nandigram, saying, “The manner in which Nandigram villages were recaptured is totally unlawful and unacceptable.”
His comments created a furore in the Marxist government in West Bengal with most leaders accusing him pf acting in a partisan manner.
At least 35 people have been killed in violence in Nandigram since January when the region flared up in protests over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ). Though the state government scrapped the plan later, a turf battle between the CPI-M and the BUPC has led to continued violence.