Bengal bandh total; Front partners threaten to quit

Kolkata, Mar 16 (UNI) Marked by stray violence, the 12-hour opposition-sponsored bandh paralysed life in West Bengal today as three Left Front partners sounded revolt against the CPI(M) threatening to quit the Ministry over the Nandigram issue.

Alleging that the Nandigram mayhem was much bigger than stated in official reports, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the area, where police opened fire on Wednesday killing 14 people and injuring many.

A CBI team visited Nandigram beginning the field investigation into the incident on the eventful day following yesterday's order by Calcutta High Court order.

The Trinamool Congress, Congress, SUCI and the BJP gave separate calls for the bandh in protest against the police firing and demanded resignation of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said about 1200 people had been arrested from different parts of the state on various charges, including rioting, arsoning, damaging government property and putting up road blocks.

The bandh supporters disrupted railway services by squatting on tracks, putting up road blockades, attacking government offices and setting vehicles ablaze.

Official sources said that about 30 government buses were either set on fire or damaged by the bandh supporters who also beat up an Additional District Magistrate and other government officials.

Streets wore a deserted look as vehicles went off the roads while shops, markets, banks, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed.

Attendance in government offices was thin while many of the factories remained closed though normal functioning was reported from coal mines, steel plants, tea gardens and the IT sector.

Congratulating the people, Ms Banerjee said the success of the bandh proved the people's solidarity with the cause of the strike.

She demanded immediate resignation of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.

In a significant development, Forward Bloc state Secretary Ashok Ghosh and RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharyay threatened that their parties would pull out of the Left Front Ministry if the CPI(M) continued to ignore the smaller partners and if the Chief Minister failed to withdraw police forces from Nandigram immediately.

''There is no Left Front government in West Bengal. It is turning into a CPI(M) government,'' the Forward Bloc state Secretary, one of the founders of the coalition ruling the state for 30 years, told reporters.

Mr Ghosh said the three smaller partners would meet in a conclave tonight to decide a unified stand before tomorrow's extended Left Front meeting on the Nandigram issue.

In what came as a morale booster to the Trinamool Congress, all the three Front partners, who had been vocal against the Nandigram firing, said today's bandh was ''spontaneous''.

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress urged Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi to use his office for central intervention into the Nandigram incident.

However, Left Front Committee Chairman Biman Basu charged the opposition with resorting to massive vandalism to force the bandh on the people.

Lambasting the opposition for creating an ''anarchy-like'' situation, Mr Basu called upon the people to be cautious against the ''conspiracy'' to shatter the peace prevailing in the state.

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UNI