NDA delegation urges Kalam to visit Nandigram

New Delhi, Mar 22 (UNI) A twelve-member NDA delegation led by Leader of the Opposition L K Advani today urged President A P J Abdul Kalam to visit Nandigram, the site of the March 14 massacre in West Bengal, to provide a ''healing touch'' to the victims of the police firing.

''The people of Nandigram are waiting for your reassurance, your healing touch, to overcome the trauma of violence to which they have been subjected to. We appeal to you to spare a few hours at your earliest convenience to visit the affected villages and comfort the terrorised people there. It will bring a bit of cheer to their lives and restore their faith in a system that has been so unfair to them,'' the leaders said.

The delegation, which had earlier visited Nandigram, submitted a three-page memorandum containing six demands which included setting up of a Special Police Station there to register FIRs, deployment of para-military forces and adequate compensation to the families of the victims.

Besides, it also sought that the President direct the West Bengal government to immediately stop the violence in the area, take effective steps to restore a sense of security, withdraw the police from the affected regions and assure the people that their ''land would not be acquired''.

The delegation alleged that the State police and the CPI(M) cadres were not allowing the people to register their complaints.

Addressing newspersons after meeting the President, Mr Advani said the delegation had brought to the notice of Mr Kalam that the police and the CPI(M) cadres had attacked the people, both Hindus and Muslims, when they were holding prayer meetings on their pieces of land which they feared would be forcibly acquired by the state government for setting up SEZs.

The delegation, Mr Advani said, also apprised the President of how women in the area were gangraped.

The leaders said it was sad to know that no provision for ambulances and fire brigades were made to take the injured to the Nandigram Grameen Hospital and the Tamuluk Government Hospital, where most of the injured were admitted.

''They were ferried to hospitals on bicycles, cycle rickshaws and even on shoulders resulting in long delays in getting medical treatment,'' the delegation pointed out.

UNI