By IANS
Kolkata : Rights activist Medha Patkar was allegedly roughed up by supporters of West Bengal’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday on way to Nandigram even as the state government announced a clutch of measures, including deployment of police patrols, to restore peace in the trouble-torn region.
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Patkar was allegedly punched and roughed up by supporters of CPI-M Thursday at Kapashberia in East Midnapore district, about 125 km from Kolkata.
According to Patkar, the Left workers stopped her car and those of her supporters at Kapashberia, smashed the car windowpanes and roughed them up while policemen in the escort cars watched passively.
Admitting the attack, East Midnapore Superintendent of Police S.S. Panda told IANS: “The incident did occur and windscreens of two cars were smashed but Medha should not have changed the route suddenly. We had promised to escort her to Nandigram but she suddenly took a detour.”
Medha and her fellow activists later squatted on the road to protest the attack, blocking the busy highway between the state capital and the industrial-cum-port township of Haldia.
Meanwhile, Public Works Department Minister Kshiti Goswami, who belongs to the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), an ally of the CPI-M, dropped a bombshell Thursday when he said the CPI-M was fighting in Nandigram to “wipe out opposition” and establish an “absolute rule” of the party.
West Bengal Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb said compensation would be paid to the victims of the March 14 firing and police would set up camps to restore peace and ensure that people could return to their homes.
“We have decided to pay Rs.200,000 compensation to the next of kin of the 14 people killed in police firing on March 14,” Deb told reporters at state secretariat Writers’ Building.
The anti-land acquisition Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), which is backed by the opposition Trinamool Congress, is demanding a compensation of Rs.500,000.
Deb said police would enter Nandigram’s violence-hit areas and set up camps with the cooperation of the warring sides, the CPI-M and BUPC, to restore peace.
“Police would patrol the areas and prevent violence,” he said.
“The administration will ensure that people from both sides are able to enter their respective areas,” he said.
Deb said while many of the police officials involved in the March 14 incident have been removed, those who are still holding posts would be transferred soon.
“Action would be taken against any policeman who would act inappropriately,” Deb said.
He said the demand of the BUPC to segregate Nandigram police station from the jurisdiction of the Haldia Development Authority (HDA), a body ruled by the CPI-M, was also under consideration.
The region, in East Midnapore district, about 125 km from Kolkata, has been witnessing violence since January over setting up of a proposed special economic zone (SEZ), which was later scrapped.
According to Panda, no major reports of violence had come in from Nandigram Thursday. However, there were reports that people, especially BUPC supporters, were fleeing their homes as the CPI-M men were taking control of the areas.
The CPI-M regained its lost bases in Nandigram this week amid fresh violence that claimed four lives and left several injured since Tuesday.
The death toll in the Nandigram violence has risen to 32 since January.
Though the SEZ was scrapped, a turf battle continued in Nandigram between the CPI-M and the Trinamool Congress-supported BUPC in the run-up to the local body elections in May next year.