Buddha can relax, exams will keep Mamata quiet

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress and constituents of Krishijami Bachao Samity (Save Farmland Committee) will not be able to hold any rally or street corner meetings at Singur as Madhyamik examinations in West Bengal will start on Tuesday and continue till March 5.

Holding rallies and street corner meetings during major examinations like Madhyamik and higher secondary using loudspeakers/microphones is banned by West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) since using such instruments at high decibel levels causes sound pollution and disturbs scores of examines.

Madhyamik is considered the largest school-leaving examination in the state for which lakhs of students appear every year. Higher Secondary is the state’s second-biggest exam in terms of the number of examinees.

After Madhyamik examinations, higher secondary examinations will commence on March 16 and continue for about a month. During the period, Trinamool Congress and other parties opposing the acquisition of farmland at Singur for the Tata Motors small car project will not be able to hold any political rallies and meetings.

“We have already stopped holding rallies and public meetings at Singur from Sunday. In fact, police lodged an FIR against me for organising a meeting at Singur on February 17 which was addressed by Mamata Banerjee,” Trinamool Congress MLA from Singur, Mr Rabindranath Bhattacharjee told ET on Monday.

Mr Bhattacharjee said Trinamool is holding group meetings in several areas of Singur without using loudspeakers and microphones.

“No political party or organisation is allowed to use loudspeakers for holding any rally or meeting in public places during examinations. Violation on this count is punishable under Environment Protection Act,” Mr Biswajit Mukherjee, senior law officer of the WBPCB, told ET on Tuesday.

The WBPCB directive has clearly come as a blessing for Tata Motors which has been facing difficulty in building a boundary wall around its Singur project site.

Something that had prompted the West Bengal government to slap prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC at Singur to enable the Tatas to carry out project work. This was done following a series of violent incidents in Singur over farmland acquisition by the government.

tamal.sengupta@timesgroup.com