Ahead of panchayat elections, fresh violence broke out in Nandigram on Saturday with two women raped allegedly by Communist Party of India-Marxist cadres during a clash between supporters of Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee and Marxists at Adhikaripara in Nandigram in which eight BUPC men were injured.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari filed his nomination on Friday from the Nandigram seat against his mentor-turned-adversary Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, and said he was '100 per cent' confident of his victory.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday filed her nomination for Nandigram assembly seat, where she will take on her former protege and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari and exuded confidence of winning it saying she has never returned empty-handed from the land of anti-farm land acquisition movement.
Fresh violence erupted in simmering Nandigram on Thursday when one person was killed in an exchange of fire between clashing groups, allegedly supporters of the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Bhoomi Uchched Protirodh Committee, as the number of deaths rose to two since Wednesday.
Saying the CPI-M has nuked the farmers in Nandigram and the UPA government, LK Advani says the NDA will raise the Nandigram issue in Parliament.
A Trinamool Congress legislator claimed the CRPF personnel exchanged gunfire with the CPI-M workers at Garchakraberia.
Seven more deaths were reported on Friday from interior villages of the flood-hit East and West Midnapore districts, raising the toll to 53, even as the situation further improved.
The deceased has been identified as Manas Das, an active local committee member of CPI-M, East Midnapore district Superintendent of Police G Srinivas told reporters in Nandigram.
A supporter of the Communist Party of India Marxist was killed in an attack by Trinamool Congress activists at Hazrakata in Nandigram on Friday, in a fresh eruption of violence after results of Panchayat elections were declared. East Midnapore District Superintendent of Police S Panda said today that the CPI-M supporter was attacked by TC supporters while he was returning home to Hazrakata from Haldia on Thursday night. He was admitted to the Tamluk Hospital. t
3 women activists of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Commitee on Tuesday claimed they were beaten up and stripped by the CPM cadres in Nandigram for refusing to support them in the ensuing panchayat polls.
The state would have to provide free medical assistance to the residents of the affected area marred by sporadic violence.
Bombs were thrown and guns were fired at Tulaghata area of Nandigram when a PTI correspondent was present there.
Sources said the police personnel complained of lack of food, accomodation and medical facilities.
The Governor had visited Nandigram on Sunday to assess the situation after CPI-M's 'recapture' of the area and said that wrong-doers must not be exonerated and the CRPF should continue there for some more time.
A BUPC member alleged that a woman was attacked by CPI-M activists for her active role in the land acquisition resistance agitation.
Banerjee, whose party is spearheading the agitation against acquisition of farmland for a proposed SEZ by the Left Front government, entered Nandigram in a procession with members of the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee.
Communist Party of India-Marxist and anti-acquisition Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee activists on Monday exchanged fire in trouble-torn Nandigram in east Midnapore district amidst reports of a gunshot injury to one person.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Friday described the flood situation in the twin districts of Midnapore which has claimed 25 lives and affected over 22 lakh people -- as 'very bad'. Of the 22 lakh people affected, 16 lakh were from West Midnapore and the rest from its coastal twin. He said the Army, which had been called in to assist in relief and rescue operations, was working in the worst-affected areas and also air-dropping dry food.
The two groups resorted to firing and hurled bombs from Satenganbari village and Takapura in Nandigram and from the adjacent CPI-M stronghold of Khejuri since Friday night, Superintendent of Police G A Srinivas said.
The, villagers, backed by the opposition, were protesting the acquisition of land for a Special Economic Zone.
In an unusually candid admission, the CPI-M blamed corruption and dishonesty among its leaders at the village level for the party's poor show in the recent panchayat elections across the state. "Not everybody in the CPI-M-controlled zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats is honest. We have corruption in our functioning. Even though they are few in number, we have to find out how this happened," CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said.
The CRPF has given a clean chit to DIG Alok Raj who was accused of rioting and not complying with the West Bengal government's orders during the panchayat elections at Nandigram in East Midnapore district. It said the allegations against DIG Alok Raj were found to be "baseless" in its internal inquiry.
Even the police were yet to go to the trouble-torn Basulichak and Dinabhandupur villages although combat force personnel staged a route march at Narby Tekhali village.
The meeting came in the wake of a successful discussion between Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata.
Flood situation in West Bengal's six districts remain unchanged, even as the death toll rose to 17 with reports of eight more deaths from different districts on Friday.
Three persons, including husband of a Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, were killed on Monday and several others injured in violence during the second phase of panchayat elections in West Bengal where 75 per cent polling was recorded.
Nandigram has been witnessing sporadic clashes between supporters of the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee, which is spearheading the agitation against land acquisition for a SEZ there.
The body of district police intelligence officer Sadhu Chatterjee was found on Saturday from the Haldi riverbed at Narghat, near Nandigram, four days after he was killed in a mob attack.
On Wednesday, a police party, including DIB's Sadhu Chatterjee, went to the area for routine enquiry. But soon they were surrounded by a large mob, which assaulted them.
The East Midnapore District Superintendent of Police A K Dutta told PTI that there had been no incident of violence.
Meanwhile, intermittent firing and bomb blasts were reported from CPI(M) strongholds of Tekhalibazar and Bhangabera areas since last evening.
The weatherman said when 'Amphan' makes the landfall between West Bengal's Digha, some 180 km from Kolkata, and Hatiya island in Bangladesh on Wednesday afternoon or evening, it will pack sustained wind speed of 155 to 165 kmph, gusting at 185 kmph. The gale-force wind, blowing at a speed of 240 to 250 kmph and gusting to 275 kmph at one point, had lost intensity and was moving at a speed of 200 to 210 kmph, gusting to 230 kmph on Tuesday evening.
East Midnapore district police Superintendent G Srinivas said the firing and hurling of bombs lasted for about an hour and stopped at around 12 noon.
About 30 CPI-M men at Riapara stopped Gouranga Deb Hazra, PTI's East Midnapore district correspondent, who was riding pillion on a motorcycle, on his way to Chandipur from Nandigram around noon.
"There were CPI-M men carrying red flags who blocked my car and some other vehicles which were going along with mine to Nandigram. I was hit on the face and they tried to pull my hair and were about to drag me out of the car," Patkar told PTI over phone from the spot.
The Centre has sought a detailed report from the West Bengal government on the circumstances leading to the violence.
Peace could at last return to troubled Nandigram block in East Midnapore district, the scene of protests against a proposed special economic zone, with an all-party peace meeting today calling for an end to violence.
Fifteen persons were killed and over 300 injured in a severe cyclonic storm that lashed West Bengal's south 24 Parganas and east Midnapore districts in the early hours on Wednesday.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari escaped unhurt today when a cloth got stuck in the rotor blades of his helicopter while landing here.
The Army was deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring districts on Saturday, hours after the West Bengal government sought its help for immediate restoration of essential infrastructure and services in the state.
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