All party meet in Tamluk for peace in Nandigram

Tamluk (East Midnapore), Jan 8: The administration took their first steps to restore peace in Nandigram when an all party meeting at the District Magistrate's office today decided to allow police inside the village and stop land acquisition for the Salim SEZ for now.

The Congress, however, did not attend the meeting as today they were observing a bandh in West Bengal to protest Saturday's killings in Nandigram, the 'reign of terror' of CPI(M) and 'forcible' acquisation of land in the region.

Official sources said it was a successful meeting. All the parties were working together for restoring peace.

The meeting decided that land acquisition for the Salim SEZ would be stopped for now and a decision taken after talking to all parties concerned. Besides, it was decided that no further notice would be served to the DM's office and the one sent by the Haldia Development Authority was a mistake.

The villagers would allow repairing of the roads and entrance of the police into the village for their security and maintaining peace.

Another meeting would be held at Nandigram PS in the evening with all the party leaders at the local level to send the message across to the people at the grassroots level.

The meeting was attended by District Magistrate Anup Agarwal and the leaders of Trinamool Congress, SUCI, CPI(M), CPI, Forward Bloc and CPI(ML). The Congress did not attend the meeting, but expressed their happiness at the decisions taken. They are scheduled to attend the local level meeting in the evening.

Nandigram has been a burning cauldron for the last three days where a series of group clashes led to the death of seven people, while 27 villages have been cut off from the rest of the districts after trouble brewed over rumours of forcible acquisition of land for Salim SEZ project.

UNI