Study tour: JU students to visit Maoist village

Express News Service Posted: Jun 17, 2008 at 0047 hrs
Kolkata, June 16 Students had earlier claimed the cops harassed them

Five women students of the Jadavpur University, who were also the members of the Maoist-backed organisation Matangini Mahila Samity (MMS), will soon visit Belpahari — a Maoist-infested area in West Midnapore — to study the quality of life there.

On June 7, the police allegedly harassed them at their rented apartment in Palbazar, accusing them of being Maoists. “The CPM and its government has labeled us as Maoists. So, we would like to speak to the people living in the so called Maoist area and understand who are these Maoists,” said Joyeeta Das, one of the students.

In their first convention after March, MMS members voiced their protest against the state government and invited all anti-CPM political parties, student bodies and NGOs to come forward and aid them in their struggle against the alleged nexus between the CPM and the police.

“We have invited all those anti-CPM organisations, who had face the brunt of CPM brutality, including the Trinamool Congress,” said Pooja Basu, another student.

The group also demanded that the state government scrap the Land Acquisition Act of 1984, Special Economic Zone Act with immediate effect and consider all the arrested Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC) supporters as political prisoners and release them immediately.