By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal Police were "forced" to open fire on protesters on March 14 in Nandigram leading to several deaths and it could not be compared to last week's police firing on Left protesters in Khammam in Andhra Pradesh, where it was "unwarranted", Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) patriarch Jyoti Basu said Monday.
"Police were forced to fire that day (March 14)," Basu said, adding, "Nandigram till today is an area which seems to be a world outside West Bengal."
According to Basu, the police action leading to six deaths in Khammam was "unwarranted".
"The situation in Khammam did not warrant police firing on Left activists, while the police were forced to fire in Nandigram," Basu told reporters after a meeting of the party's state committee.
Basu said the report of the Divisional Commissioner who had probed the Nandigram killings had stated that police were forced to fire on a violent mob protesting land takeover for industry.
Asked how long the Nandigram situation would continue, he said: "Ask Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya."
Opposition Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, a staunch opponent of the land acquisition move by the government, has flayed the CPI-M for its "double standards" on the Nandigram and Khammam episodes.
Meanwhile, after a high-level meeting between Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, state Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb and Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy, the home secretary said the situation was now under control in Nandigram and initiatives for peace meetings were on.
Roy said there was no report of firing Monday.
On Sunday, a farmer was killed in a gun battle between the CPI-M and the rival anti-land acquisition group BUPC (Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee) in Nandigram.
The BUPC observed a 12-hour shutdown Monday in Nandigram to protest the police baton-charge the day before that left 35 people injured.
At least 23 people have died in Nandigram since January when the region erupted in protest over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim group and a chemical hub.