Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday visited Nandigram to distribute pattas (title deeds) among the poor and the landless. A total of 1,483 pattas were given to distribute 224 acres of land among 2,441 people. Nearly a year ago, his government had acquired land here for industry, but on Tuesday, the CM was the chief guest of a Government-sponsored rally with the aim of giving a “healing touch” to the people of Nandigram. Despite such a change in priority, the ruling CPI(M) is yet to get a strong foothold in Nandigram that is still simmering in political turmoil.Even as the CM was busy handing over pattas for land in one part of Nandigram, in another part, near Kendamari, villagers had dug up a road in protest against his party. The CM, who was the chief guest at the function, kicked off the programme by distributing pattas to five families. But there were hardly 1,000 people attending the much-hyped rally. Clearly, for most people, the gesture by the CM was not enough to wipe off the nightmarish memories of police firing on March 14 last year and the forcible entry of armed CPI(M) cadres.Barely two hours after the CM had finished his speech, Shantiram Garai, the BDO of Nandigram, accompanied by police, dashed off to Kendamari where roads had been dug at three places by members of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) on Monday night. Garai later claimed that he had got the road repaired.At the programme, the CM sounded almost apologetic: “Today, I have come here to give you land, not to take it away from you. In no circumstances will we acquire land at Nandigram. I am asking both CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress to shun violence and start working for development.”However, BUPC members remained sceptics. “We don’t trust him. Has he given anything in writing to say that he will not take away our land? I was a CPI(M) supporter. In fact, the majority of the BUPC members were CPI(M) members and supporters. But we had to take to streets because of the CM’s double standards,” said Santosh Maity, a BUPC member from Kendamari.Shaikh Noor Hussain, another BUPC member, said, “The CPI(M) campaigned here urging people to join the CM’s rally, but we ignored it.”Added Rabeya Bibi, another resident, “Tell the whole world that we have dug up the road to stop CPI(M) cadres from entering our area. In Monday’s clash, four BUPC members were beaten up. Subsequently, truck loads of policemen arrived and threatened us. Ironically, it was the CPI(M) who had started the violence.”The CM, in his speech, warned that the Maoists were trying to sneak into Nandigram. “All the political parties will ultimately embrace peace, except the Maoists. They are receiving arms training at Jhargram, Ghatshila and Jharkhand. They are killers. Don’t let them enter here,” he said.
