Friday, November 2, 2007

Seth adds fuel to Nandigram fire

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=175163

Shyam Sunder Roy
& Saket Sundria

MIDNAPORE/NANDIGRAM, Nov. 1: Even as violence continued in certain pockets of Nandigram, Mr Laxman Seth, CPI-M MP, today asked his party men to adopt a “die or let die” approach. “We have been pushed to the wall. The only option now is to kill or get killed. We have to fight till the last drop of blood in our bodies,” he said while delivering a speech at the 4th conference of the CPI-M Nandakumar zonal committee, in Srikishnapur High School.
Addressing a gathering of around 3,000 villagers, the local MP said the party would have to build a wall of resistance against the BUPC. While on the one hand he tried to create an impression that his party did not want bloodshed, on the other he called on people to prepare for a fierce battle. “We were not prepared for violence while they were armed to kill. That’s why we had to backtrack from Nandigram. The only way to bring back peace in the area is by fighting back,” he fumed.
Mr Seth declared at the party’s zonal conference that for industrial projects that would soon come up around Nandigram, land losers would be given a fair price and rehabilitation.
The CPI-M leader said his party did not want to acquire land forcibly. “It is not like an earring of a housewife that we will snatch from you. The Trinamul Congress is trying to mislead people. We will ensure a fair price and proper rehabilitation before taking the land,” he claimed. The MP declared that the government would provide a price 30 per cent higher than the market rate, apart from a house at rehabilitation centres.
“Even bargadars will be rehabilitated and enough employment opportunities will be generated,” Mr Seth maintained. He said the state government was planning several projects in the region, which would bring prosperity to the people. Mr Seth was, however, silent on the recent flare-up in Nandigram. He blamed the Congress for the plight of the farmers.
Meanwhile, CPI-M supporters and Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee members clashed with bombs and bullets in the Khejuri-Nandigram border areas. Sheikh Murshed, a physically challenged man who is missing since yesterday, is yet to be traced.

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