By IANS
Kolkata : Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Monday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and all concerned to act to bring peace in West Bengal’s Nandigram that has seen repeated flare-ups of large-scale violence.
“I am knocking at all doors. I contacted the prime minister who is now in Moscow. I have spoken to the Union home secretary (Madhukar Gupta). I am trying to contact the Union home minister (Shivraj Patil),” Banerjee told a press conference at Tamluk in East Midnapore district where she visited the victims of bullet injuries in Nandigram.
Banerjee, who broke all barriers and rode on pillion of a motorcycle Sunday to reach Tamluk on way to Nandigram, was yet to reach the ground zero, but “appealed to all” to act for protecting Nandigram villagers who, reports say, have been hounded out by cadres of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
“I appeal to all to protect humanity. I urge all beyond the national barrier to act as well,” Banerjee said.
“Each moment is very important. Everything is peaceful now in Nandigram, then why are we not allowed to go there? And if I am not allowed, then why are even mediapersons not allowed to go inside and cover?
“Let the media go there if everything is so fine,” said Banerjee.
She said even the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) units sent by the central government to bring peace in Nandigram were not allowed inside Nandigram.
“If there is silence in Nandigram now, then it is the silence of graveyard.”
Banerjee, whose party has called an “immobilisation” programme in West Bengal since Monday morning, clarified that Trinamool had not called any 48-hour shutdown but was supporting peacefully the other opposition parties that have called a shutdown on Tuesday also.
“We have only decided not to cooperate with the government and hold an immobilisation programme across the state,” she said.
West Bengal was shut down Monday and witnessed street violence during the Trinamool’s indefinite “immobilisation” programme and shutdowns ranging from 24 hours to 48 hours called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) over the spate of killings in Nandigram.
Violence in Nandigram has claimed 34 lives since January, when the region flared up over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ). The state government scrapped the plan later in the face of stiff resistance.
However, a turf battle continues in Nandigram between the CPI-M and a villagers’ group in the run-up to local body elections in May next year.