ATTACK ON SINGUR FACTORY GUARDS STRONGLY CONDEMNED

KOLKATA(INN), 23 SEPTEMBER: That Trinamul Congress goondas sneaked inside the Singur motor vehicles factory and severely beat up two security guards in the dark of the night of 22 September 2008 (both had to be removed for treatment to a hospital) has been condemned strongly by the Bengal Left Front. Biman Basu has called the assault ‘craven and conspiratorial.’

LF GOVT’S ROLE

Bimanda has clearly come out with an assertion that unhesitatingly points to a larger and wily scheme afloat to sabotage the sincere efforts of the Bengal Left Front government to ensure the re-commencement of the working of the Singur motor vehicles factory. A special package has already been announced for the people of Singur by way of a sustainable financial and economic rehabilitation. The package works out to the interests of all concerned – the landowners, the peasants, the share-croppers, and the agricultural labourers.

Bimanda is of the firm view that while there a determination in the drive of the Bengal LF government to maintain and secure the interest of both agriculture and of agriculturists, the effort is faced with a rejection of the package on irrational grounds by the Trinamul Congress and its cohorts for the simple reason that they would like to see the Singur project scuttled.

ROLE OF THE TRINAMULIS

The Trinamul Congress had earlier during their so-called dharna and Satyagraha, threatened the employees of the factory with dire consequences. The entrepreneurs chose to close the factory down pro tem. The fresh assaults are clear indicators of the design the Trinamul Congress and its gangsters have in mind in terms of permanently closing down the factory, and at the same time to terrorise the people of Singur.

Bimanda further said that while in public the Trinamul Congress ‘has gone on record to say that they are engaged in organising a peaceful Satyagraha,’ in practice, the attacks earlier and right now would simply prove if nothing else then the discordance of the Trinamul Congress with the process of development of Bengal. They do not want that there would an increase in employment through a process of pro-people industrialisation. They would not care to see a secure future for the generations to come in Bengal.

BENGAL LF’S APPEAL

The Bengal Left Front has appealed to the people of the state to come forward and to foil the conspiracy that is designated to harm Bengal’s interests. The LF also asks of the mass of the people to organise unified protests against all acts of commission and mischief like the latest instance of sneak attack.

Bimanda believes that ‘at this point of time it devolves on the people of Singur to decide whether there will be a motor vehicles project at Singur, or not.’ The LF in the meanwhile has called upon the state LF government to take all necessary steps to keep the law-and-order situation intact at Singur as elsewhere in Bengal, to maintain a peaceful setting, and to ensure that work resumes at the motor vehicles factory at Singur.

B. PRASANT

MAOISTS KILL CPI (M) ZONAL COMMITTEE LEADER IN BIRBHUM VILLAGE

KOLKATA(INN), 23 SEPTEMBER: Maoist assassins with conniving help from Trinamulis brutally killed comrade Nandalal Mistry (53), a member of the Khairashol zonal committee of the CPI (M) at Rajnagar in Birbhum bordering Jharkhand. This was the same region where exactly a year back, the Maoists had killed Tantipara local committee member of the CPI (M), comrade Sridam Das.

The morning of 22 September saw Comrade Nandalal going to the Agayabandi School where he is the headmaster when he was accosted by three or four young men who were standing besides a parked motorbike. They asked for a motorcycle repair shop. Unsuspecting, comrade Nandalal was pointing out the direction for the young men to take when the latter, trained killers all of a Maoist gang, fired at him twice. Both bullets found their marks at the close range from which they were discharged.

Bleeding profusely comrade Nandalal sank to the ground and the cowardly killers then stepped forward and brutally slit the fallen comrade’s throat -- and then fled after spreading about Maoist leaflets that talked of class war and class assassinations -- through killing a mild-mannered and elderly headmaster and a dedicated Communist, and the only bread-winner of a poor peasant family?

The grim fact of the matter is that the area has been earlier under the terrorist command of a joint Trinamul-Maoist-Jharkhandi gang. They also ran the Panchayat. It had been comrade Nandalal and the Khairashol zonal committee that organised and rallied the toiling masses – mostly kisans and khet mazdoors – to resist the killers and to wrest the Panchayati bodies away during this year’s polls. The Trinamuli-Maoist-Jharkhandis have been plotting avenge since.

Biman Basu, secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) has strongly condemned the killing and has called for an early bringing to book of the culprits and their associates and henchmen. Marches were brought out almost immediately after the killing became known and the protest demonstrations would continue until 26 September, the Birbhum district leadership of the CPI (M) informs us.

B. PRASANT

VC voice for industry cry

THE TELEGRAPH,

Issue Date: Tuesday , September 23 , 2008
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, Sept. 22: Vice-chancellors of the state’s leading universities today faxed an appeal to the government and all political parties to end the Singur impasse for the sake of Bengal’s youth.

Care was taken not to blame any political party, but while dwelling on Singur, the letter said: “Such obstacles to industrialisation cannot be imagined in any other state in India.”

Among the signatories were the vice-chancellors of Calcutta University, Jadavpur University and Rabindra Bharati University. The head of the Indian Statistical Institute and the chairman of the state higher education council also signed the letter.

Supporting the government’s drive, the vice-chancellors wrote: “The process of industrialisation that has started in Bengal is set to bring job opportunities to the young students in the state.

“Many of them, coming from poor and lower middle- class families, are waiting for these opportunities. The worst affected will be these young boys and girls if the process of industrialisation suffers.”

The letter said that if the right of the farmer to land was the main contention, an “acceptable solution” could have been reached by now.

“We appeal to the parties that instead of making it a political issue, they should allow the industrialisation process to progress in the interests of the youth of Bengal.”

The heads of the universities also dealt with the farmland-versus-industry debate, saying the argument about a threat to food security because of land acquisition had no merit.

“Fears that food security will be threatened in the state, when two to three per cent of the total land is being used for industry and infrastructure development, are baseless,” they said.

The academics also urged the government to adopt a clear policy of compensation and rehabilitation for the landlosers.

Swapan Pramanik, the vice-chancellor of Vidyasagar University, said institution heads held a meeting recently and took a decision to issue the appeal.

“The statement was prepared on the basis of a unanimous decision by all the vice-chancellors and pro-vice-chancellors,” Pramanik said.