By IANS
Kolkata : The West Bengal government Wednesday said it wanted the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) units to remain deployed in trouble-torn Nandigram till the panchayat elections around the middle of this year.
It also indicated it would welcome if petitioners withdrew some 600 cases filed in the area in the aftermath of violence last year.
“We want the CRPF to stay in Nandigram till the panchayat election in West Bengal. Though the central paramilitary force is supposed to stay there till Feb 12, we have not discussed anything with the Centre regarding the extension period,” West Bengal Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy told reporters at state secretariat Writers’ Buildings.
Roy said about 600 criminal cases were filed and were pending in Nandigram, but if the petitioners and the accused want to withdraw their cases, they would be welcome.
Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee appreciated the vital role the CRPF played in enforcing peace in the area, about 150 km from here in West Midnapore district. Villagers in the region violently opposed the state government plans to construct a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), including a chemical hub, and stressed it would wipe out farmlands and human habitation in the entire region.
Bhattacharjee said the central paramilitary force has been successful in gaining full control over the situation in the restive region.
The CRPF units entered Nandigram Nov 12 last year and set up camps at five locations – Nandigram College, Gokulnagar, Rajaramchak School, Khudambari-I and II. A team of women constables of the CRPF is also posted at Nakuria in the area.
The official toll in the year-long Nandigram violence in 2007 is 35.
On March 14, 2007, 14 people were killed and hundreds injured in police firing, while some women were reportedly raped.
In November, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) allegedly unleashed a reign of terror to recapture the area, leaving a trail of destruction, with the rival Bhuumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members beaten up and women in their households allegedly raped.
Earlier, the CPI-M supporters were driven out of the area by BUPC and forced to live in camps in adjoining Khejuri, a base of the CPI-M from where they launched attacks on their rivals in Nandigram.