Nandigram victims submit memo to Prez; recall brutalities

New Delhi, July 2 (UNI) A delegation of victms of police attorcities in Singur and Nandigram, intellectuals and social activists from Bengal, led by All India Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, today met President A P J Abdul Kalam and urged him to protect the interest of the farmers there.

The delegation apprised him of the latest development in the state and also submitted a memorandum to him in this regard.

Victims of the Nandigram-Singur violence in West Bengal narrated horrifying accounts of how they were brutally beaten up, their kin mercilessly killed and hundreds of girls, including minors, allegedly gangraped by Marxist cadres with the active support of the local administration.

At a one-day convention of the Trinamool Congress supported West Bengal Krishi Jami Raksha Committee (KJRC), the victims and their families demanded immediate abolition of the more than a century-old Land Acquisition Act, 1894 which the Left Government in the state had invoked late last year to oust peasants from the Nandigram and Singur areas from their lands.

The ''forcible'' eviction to make available the lands for the Tata's small car project at Singur and setting up of a chemical hub at Nandigram by an Indonesian group was resisted by the oustees and the resultant police firing had led to deaths of some two score people.

Recounting instances of police brutality, Radha Rani Ich, mother of five chldren and one of the gangraped victim, said the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led government should be ashamed for the acts. ''I have not been shamed rather it should be the Government which should be ashamed for this,'' she said.

She alleged that those who raped her were wearing police uniforms and 'chappals' on in their foot which she claims clearly indicate that there were CPI(M) cadres in police uniform.

Speaking on the occasion, former CPI(M) MP Saifuddin Choudhary regretted that there is no democracy in West Bengal and accused the politicians of speaking in different voice at the state and the Centre.

''But they have forgotton that they cannot throttle the voice of millions, either by guns or by rape. In a democracy people are the king and if they brought them to power today, they could very well be removed by the same people for their misdeeds tomorrow,'' he added.

Editor of Maninstream Sumit Chakraborty said nobody was opposed to industrialisation but the Government should have taken the people into confidence and taken their views but instead they chose to usher the virtual ''emergency era rule,'' he added.

Ms Banerjee accused the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government of trying to save some of their senior party members as they were questioned by CBI officials in the Tapasi Mullick murder case.

The Trinamool Congress supremo said the law should take its own course and the Centre should not be scared if the state Governemnt is toppled after the CBI investigation in the Tapasi murder case just because the Left party is supporting the UPA government from outside.

She also said they had requested the State Governemnt to share the details of Tata's agreement with it under the Right to Information Act but the government has bluntly refused to pass on any information.

''This only further strengthens our suspicion that there must be some secret deal in this and the Chief Minister and the CPI(M) must be a party to that and we demand that this should be probed by CBI,'' she demanded.

UNI