By IANS,
Minakha (West Bengal): Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Thursday chose not to comment on the Singur land verdict, but attacked the state government for alleged atrocities on farmers.
Addressing a rally here in North 24-Parganas district, the CPI-M politburo member alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government was evicting peasants who had been given land title deeds by the erstwhile Left Front rulers.
“First, our party offices are being attacked and our workers severely beaten up. Then they are committing atrocities on the peasants as our workers in such a situation won’t be in a position to defend the poor farmers,” Bhattacharjee said.
“We had such apprehensions. Now there are disturbances in all the districts. There is a new situation now after the change of government. We have to take the poor people with us,” he said.
“In Haroa (in North 24-Parganas), we had given title deeds for 5,000 acres of land to the poor. Now farmers are being forcibly thrown out of their land. How can we accept such things?” he said.
He added that only the communists and Left parties are fighting for the poor, while the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Congress are silent.
Bhattacharjee said even Left unions among bus, mini-bus and taxi workers were being targeted.
The Calcutta High Court Wednesday ruled the the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act passed by the Trinamool government was valid and constitutional, paving the way for land acquired from farmers for Tata Motors’ Nano project by the previous Left Front government to be returned to them.