Left to despatch team to Khammam

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s CPM leadership on Monday decided to send a team to Khammam where several farmers were killed in police firing on Saturday. The decision to send the team was taken during the two-day state committee meeting of the party on Monday. The team will be led by Benoy Konar, CPM central committee member.

CPM politburo member Jyoti Basu told reporters on Monday that the cases of police firing at Nandigram and Khammam were different. “There was no provocation at Khammam where the farmers were fighting for exerting their rights over the land they plough. But in Nandigram, there was enough provocation and the agitators attacked the police team,” Mr Basu said.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Monday met the West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and complained to him that the Haldia Development Authority (HDA) was trying to issue another land acquisition notice to acquire land for the proposed chemical hub there. She also demanded adequate compensation for the families of Nandigram victims.

Altogether 14 persons were killed in Nandigram on March 14. Even on Sunday, another person, alleged to be a CPIM supporter, was also killed in the firing by the members of the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee.

Meanwhile, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee held a meeting with senior state police officials and reviewed the law and order situation at Nandigram.

The home secretary, Mr Prasad Ranjan Roy, told newspersons after the meeting that the government had decided to deploy more policemen at Nandigram to prevent any incident of violence in the area, “However, we don’t have any plan to deploy the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at Nandigram,” he informed.

The CPIM state leadership also decided to hold the state conference of the party in Kolkata from January 13, 2008. The conference will be over on January 17.