By IANS,
Haroa (West Bengal) : Alleging that poor peasants were under attack in West Bengal following a change of government in the state, former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Saturday said farmers were being evicted from land they had tilled for 25-30 years.
Addressing a rally here in North 24 Parganas district, opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Bhattacharjee said: “These peasants are poor. They either belong to the Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes or to the Muslim community. They have been tilling the land for 25-30 years. Why should they be evicted? We won’t accept this.”
Bhattacharjee said the CPI-M-led Left Front, that was in power in the state from 1977 till May this year, had given title deeds to 12,000 peasants in Haroa by acquiring 5,500 acres from the big land holders.
“Today they are being ousted only because there has been a regime change. Some of them have now returned but still cannot till their land. Can this go on,” he asked.
He said the Left would be with the poor peasants in their struggle and help them get back their land.
Describing the situation in the state as bleak, he said those who had voted against the Left Front hoping that the Trinamool Congress would give better governance were already disillusioned.
He said people were reeling under rising prices, for which both the central and state governments were to be blamed.
Bhattacharjee alleged that the Darjeeling problem had worsened after the new pact entered into by the Trinamool government with the pro-Gorkhaland Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
“We had said we won’t allow Darjeeling to break away from our state. But now what do we see? The government says Darjeeling will become Switzerland. But the people of Darjeeling say they want Gorkhaland (a separate state to be carved out of parts of West Bengal),” he said.
The former chief minister, who headed the government for over a decade from November 2000, claimed that the Maoists had their backs to the wall during the Left Front rule and had run away to neighbouring Jharkhand.
“But now they are back,” he said.
Taking a dig at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had time and again said as opposition leader that there were no Maoists in the state, Bhattacharjee, without taking names, asked: “What is her take on the issue now?”
He referred to the April-May assembly polls, in which the Left Front was decimated by the Trinamool-led alliance, and said: “We had made mistakes and the people have voted against us.”
Talking about the by-poll in Basirhat in the district later this month, he said: “Ultimately the people will decide which path the state will take. I am confident you will be able to choose the right path.”