Government notification dismisses land acquisition

Kolkata, Mar 19 (UNI) With the March 14 Nandigram incident rocking the country to the hilt, the East Midnapore district authorities today issued a notification ruling out acquisition of land at Nandigram and other areas.

District Magistrate Anup Agarwal told UNI that they had issued a notification stating that no land would be acquired in the district and informed that copies of the notification had been sent to the gram panchayats and different political parties.

The notification was issued two days after the ruling Left Front decided not to go for acquisition of land and pull out police in phases from Nandigram in the wake of a national outcry over the March 14 police firing and threatening of the key Front partners to quit the Ministry.

The state Assembly still continued to wilt under Nandigram impact as the Opposition members walked out of the House separately, demanding Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's arrest and a discussion on the issue.

Determined to stall the Assembly proceedings, Trinamool Congress members created a pandemonium in the House as soon as it began for the Question Hour.

Sounding bugles, playing flutes and raising slogans, they disrupted the proceedings holding posters demanding the Chief Minister's arrest owning responsibility for the killing of villagers at Nandigram.

The budget session of tthe Kolkata Municipal Corporation was also not spared as the Opposition members went on a rampage.

Creating a bedlam in protest against what they alleged the government's highhandedness, members of the Opposition Trinamool Congress, Congress and BJP damaged furniture, broke light stands and snapped microphone wires. All hell broke loose when they suddenly raised slogans against the CPI(M)-led government and the Chief Minister and rushed at the Mayor.

Eggs were hurled, papers flew and tables were overturned as a scuffle started between rival party members.

The incident even had its toll on the CPI(M) also with the resignation of 50 members of the party's frontal organisation among the state Government employees responding to the call of ''conscience''.

'' We have resigned because we do not want to be a part of any organisation where we cannot listen to our conscience, '' a spokesperson of the group that broke away from West Bengal Secretariat Employees' Association, a part of the all powerful West Bengal Government Employees Coordination Committee, told reporters.

Meanwhile, eleven people, including three policemen and two journalists, were injured today when members of the Jamait-E- Ulema-I-Hind clashed with police during a law violation programme to protest the Nandigram incident in the heart of the city.

Police burst two rounds of tear gas shells and lathicharged the mob that gathered under the banner of 'Gana Unnayan and Jana Adhikar Sangram Samiti(Associastion for people's development and people's rights)' when it showered brickbats and went on a rampage damaging several buses in the nearby depot.

Violence erupted in Nandigram in January over the Government's reported move to acquire land for the proposed chemical hub to be set up with IOC as the anchor investor.

Organised under the banner of 'Bhoomi Uchched Protirodh Committee', local people took to a militant movement to resist any such move.

The things reached a flashpoint on March 14 when police opened fire killing at least 14 people while trying to enter the area.

UNI