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Two women of Sonachura village here have alleged that CRPF DIG Alok Raj molested them on Saturday night and lodged FIRs in the police station in Nandigram, which has witnessed fresh violence and tension in the wake of panchayat polls.
CPM MP Lakshman Seth, who had a heated telephonic conversation with Raj, claimed that the CRPF officer was moving about during the panchayat polling in the trouble-torn area without a magistrate, violating a directive by the state home department.
Alleging that Raj had hung up the phone when he tried to call him several times, Seth said, ''I told him that this behaviour of his was discourteous.''
The DIG alleged that Seth was trying to put pressure on him, a charge which the MP rejected. Seth said that ‘the state home department has issued an order that the CRPF will not move without the police and a magistrate. I only reminded the DIG, CRPF of this order’.
The DIG, who maintained that he had received at least a 100 calls since morning, told Seth that he was ‘very hurt’ that ‘false’ FIRs have been filed against him.
"Why ? What wrong have I done? I will go to the honourable court and I will ask the court to intervene in this matter and have a CBI or a judicial inquiry into this," Raj said, according to telephonic talk between the two quoted by a TV channel.
Officer-in-charge of Nandigram police station Debashish Chakraborty said the women had lodged FIRs stating that they had been beaten up and molested by Raj on Saturday night during a raid.
Raj said, ''I don't care about any false allegation. Let there be an independent inquiry. I am not afraid of such allegations and will continue to do my duties here.''
He said he was busy at a meeting on Saturday night and did not leave the CRPF camp.
Meanwhile, polling in East Midnapore district, including Nandigram and in four other districts, remained by and large peaceful.
The state Congress party alleged that party candidate in Nandigram-II Chittaranjan Adak was kidnapped and locked up by the CPM.
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RatingI hope justice prevails. The MP must loose his seat for immorality. However, the DIG had no business to publicize the conversation.
The crookedly fabricated immoral techniques are once again in display at NANDIGRAM through CPM cultuLred MP lakhsman Seth !THIS IS THE METHOD BY WHICH THEY STOP GENUINELY HARD WORKING DEDICATED OFFICERS !EC IS DEAF AND BLIND?
The state's Communist govt has ordered 22,000 acres (9,000 hectares) to be turned over to a special economic zone for an Indonesian-owned petrochemical complex. Such zones would, like those in China, offer industry tax and duty-free areas free from govt red tape. The impetus lies with West Bengal communist govt's desire to match China's lightning and sustained economic growth. However, China's 3 decade-long race for development has left at least 40 million landless peasants, generating much resentment in the countryside which often boils over violently. The cost of such special zones to the Indian taxpayer is put at 1,750bn rupees (£21bn) by 2011. However, the govt has said the benefits are considerable and would bring in £7bn in investment and create almost a million jobs. "This is not a very good way of creating jobs," Shankar Archarya, a central govt economic advisor has said. It's time the govt treats its citizens humanely otherwise we have a making of another Romania in Bengal.
The govt in West Bengal which was elected through the ballot is now using bullets to suppress a peasants' uprising in the state. The govt and the communist cadres' misrule of the past 30 years has turned West Bengal into an autocratic police state. It's stupid Khymer Rouge type dictates and decisions have led to a state sponsored terrorism and the massacre of innocent citizens. With so many incidents like the Nandigram that have happened in India during the past 61 years of independence, India cannot be called a democracy. It is in reality the largest autocratic police state in the world. West Bengal’s communist cadres' blind and stupid attempt to imitate the Chinese economic boom by handing farmland to big business without adequate democratic peaceful consultation with the villagers affected and without providing them with adequate financial compensation according to law are the reasons for the shocking situation. Shame on U, all Pol Pots and Saddam Husseins of West Bengal.
The corporate subsidies provided by the govt have attracted international interest. Since the govt passed a law in 2005 approving the special economic zones the govt has approved 60 sites, although the earlier violence in West Bengal had put a further 300 applications on hold. Many plots are for luxury private housing and for software companies keen to buy new premises. One zone in Bengal aims to build a 'people's car' worth less than £1,500. Some experts say the compensation scheme has only bought off landowners and not the peasants who work the land. The Indian Statistics Institute has said a landlord received 1.3m rupees an acre in Bengal while sharecroppers only received a quarter of that sum, with agricultural labourers granted nothing. "No wonder you have a peasant uprising," said the institute's Professor Abhirup Sarkar. "It is bad economics and bad politics, too."
The violence against the people has prompted questions as to whether India's democracy can sustain the pursuit of a Chinese-style industrial revolution. Since the special enterprise zones have been approved, farmland is bought, sometimes through compulsory state acquisitions. "You are telling a poor tiller of the land that his livelihood will disappear and that if you wait for 15 years he might get a job in a new factory. It is not going to be acceptable," Ashok Mitra, a former chief economic adviser to the government has said.
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