By IANS
Kolkata : A Singur-like situation occurred in Burdwan district of West Bengal Sunday as villagers clashed with police in protest against allocation of land for expansion of a steel firm even as Nandigram remained tense for the third consecutive day.
At least 12 people, including some women, were injured in the incident at Purushottampur, about 250 km from Kolkata, reports from Burdwan said.
"It might be 12 (the number of the injured) but the injuries are minor. The agitation was also nothing big," Burdwan Superintendent of Police Piyush Pande told IANS over phone.
"The situation is peaceful now," he said. A large number of women police personnel were present to tackle the situation since many of the agitators were women.
Reports from Nandigram in East Midnapore district said there was fresh firing in the morning from the side of Khejuri, the base of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) where their party supporters were staying in camps since the flare-up in January over acquisition of land for a special economic zone (SEZ).
The violence over the acquisition of farmland has claimed 21 lives so far.
Gunbattles have raged since Friday with the CPI-M and the rival Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) clashing with firearms. Some policemen were injured in the crossfire. A cop had to be shifted to a Kolkata hospital after he received bullet injuries in his head.
Meanwhile, villagers of Purushottampur Sunday were resisting possession of their land for a Rs.100 billion expansion and modernisation of the IISCO steel plant in Asansol sub-division.
About 350 families of Purushottampur argued that the compensation they got in 1989 for their non-agricultural land was inadequate. They are now demanding revised compensation to match that of Singur and also a job for a member from each family at the plant.
"Singur and Nandigram have shown us the way. We will give our land only on our terms," a member of the Purushottampur Land Losers' Committee was quoted by a local daily.
The villagers had moved the Calcutta High Court but the court has dismissed the committee's petition challenging the legality of the acquisition.
IISCO has paid the state government Rs.400 million for 305 acres in the Purushottampur, Nagrasoda and Hirapur mouzas of Burdwan distict.
The land-losers of Nagrasoda and Hirapur accepted the cheques but those of Purushottampur refused.