CPI(M) to launch 45-day statewide campaign for industrialisation

Kolkata, Jan 13: Going for a damage control in Nandigram and preempting unrest over land acquisition elsewhere in West Bengal, the CPI(M) will launch a 45-day statewide campaign from Monday in favour of industrialisation.

Admitting that the organisation was complacent to loose touch with Nandigram farmers, the party, at an emergency meeting today also decided to embark on a door-to-door campaign in the strife-torn area to regain the people's confidence.

Walking tightrope on the need to set up industry, the CPI(M) called for a similar measure in Bhangar of South 24 Parganas district where another SEZ would be set up and sounded an alert for Salboni in West Midnapore district where a mega steel plant by the Jindals was on the anvil.

The meeting, that chalked out its strategy to put off the Nandigram flame and reviewed the overall ground reality in the way of the industrialisation in the state, was attended by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state Committee Secretary Biman Basu, among others.

They held separate meetings with the CPI(M) East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas district committees.

'' We are launching a statewide campaign from January 15 to February 28 explaining to the people what for industry is needed, what rehabilitation will be offered and all other details, '' Mr Basu told reporters.

The campaign would be carried out through distribution of booklets containing facts and the stand point of the Left Front Government and the party, he said.

Mr Basu will visit Haldia, adjoining Nandigram, tomorrow to meet party workers and district committee leaders to discuss strategies to defuse tension and retrieve the lost ground among the party's one-time supporters.

However, CPI(M) sources said the party had adopted a tactical line to hold meetings and launch a door-to-door campaign in the adjoining areas of Nandigram. Considering the volatility still prevailing there, party leaders would not enter Nandigram right now to convince the people.

Seven people, including a few CPI(M) supporters, were killed in an orgy of violence that broke out in Nandigram as a simmering discontent over acquisition of land for the proposed SEZ for a chemical hub which went boiling on January following a notification issued by the Haldia Development Authority (HDA), a Government agency.

The sources said the meeting agreed that the Chief Minister had no knowledge about the notification and censured HDA Chairman Laxaman Seth, MP, for having sent a ''wrong signal'' to the local people.

''Making an introspection, the meeting admitted that the party had lost contact with the people of Nandigram because of complacency in its stronghold and that was why there was no inkling about the people's sentiment that the Opposition exploited, ''the sources said.

Reviewing reports on the Muslim-dominated Bhangar area of South 24 Parganas, where a ''severe communal campaign'' had been launched against the party and the Government, it had been decided to go for an intense campaign among the local people to tide over the situaion.

Once a citadel, Bhangar had slipped out of the party's grip in the last assembly elections following a smouldering resentment against the reported move to acquire several thousands of acres of farm land for setting up of an SEZ of the Indonesian Salim group.

Stating that the ground reality was difficult in South 24 Parganas, the party's district committee report said no amount of persuation among the local people proved effective so far.

'' The meeting decided to go for all sorts of campaign to remove the misgivings and fight the anti-campaign, '' the sources said.

As the JSW Steel owned by Mr Sajjan Jindal signed an agreement with the Government for a ten-million ton integrated steel plant at Salboni, the meeting called for a special care about West Midnapore district in anticipation of troubles over land acquisition.

The party asked Mr Dipak Dasgupta, a state Secretariat member, in-charge of both East and West Midnapore districts, to be alert against ''infiltration'' of outsiders to build up any resistance against taking over about 5,000 acre of land, required for the project.

The steel plant, to be the largest in the country, entails a total investment of Rs 35,000 crore. However, most of the land identified for the project is stated to be vested with the Government.

UNI