NANDIGRAM FILES

January 3, 2007: Violence breaks out in Nandigram as thousands of villagers attack police and government officials at Kalicharanpur gram panchayat. The villagers had heard rumours that the state government would acquire land in the area for a chemical hub.

January 7: Six persons killed in a clash between the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee at Bhangabera in Nandigram.

January 8: Trouble spreads throughout Nandigram as members of the BUPC and the CPI(M) clash. CPI(M) supporters and their family members leave their homes to take shelter in makeshift camps in Khejuri. The BUPC-backed villagers dig up the road leading to the village and put up barricades to keep the police out of Nandigram villages.

January 9: Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee says he will go to Nandigram and admits the administration failed to tackle the situation there.

February 7: Sadhu Chatterjee, an officer of the District Intelligence Branch, goes missing from Nandigram after being assaulted by a mob. On Feb 10, his body is fished out of Haldi river with multiple injury marks.

February 11: Chief Minister addresses a rally in Heria near Nandigram to announce that land will not be acquired. But BUPC refuses to lift blockade of villages.

March 14: A huge contingent of police tries to march into Nandigram. Fourteen villagers killed as protesters clash with police. Calcutta High Court directs CBI to investigate police firing and file its report.

March 17: CBI arrests 10 CPI(M) activists from Janani brick field at Khejuri near Thekhali bridge and seizes a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

March 26: CBI submits report to division bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh.

June-July: High Court hears police firing case.

September 3: Buddhadeb says proposed chemical hub at Nandigram will be shifted to Nayachar, an island 30 km away from Haldia.

October 25: CPI(M) cadres initiate attempt to re-capture Nandigram. Police watch as cadres march back into Nandigram. On November 7, an estimated 25,000 villagers take shelter in Nandigram schools as armed cadres enter villages.

November 10: CPI(M) cadres fire at peace rally at Majeshpur in Nandigram. Two dead.

November 12: CPI(M) recaptures Nandigram.

November 13: Five CRPF companies reach Nandigram. Buddhadeb justifies the violent Nandigram recapture, saying, “The opposition was paid back in the same coin”.

November 16: Calcutta High Court rules Nandigram police firing illegal.

November 25: CRPF finds huge cache of arms and ammunition, along with Maoist literature, at Sonachura in Nandigram.

December 6: Unidentified graves spotted in Khejuri bordering Nandigram. Later, charred bones recovered from graves believed to be of people murdered during the CPI(M)-BUPC clash.

The Backlash
Even after the March 14 firing, industry has not turned its back on Bengal. The state has signed 13 agreements worth over Rs 1 lakh crore. But for these proposals to get started, the government has to acquire around 22,000 acres.
After the Nandigram fiasco, the state government has decided not to invoke the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Instead, it has decided to try out the direct-purchase model but has had little success.
After the Bengal government burnt its hands with ‘land acquisition’, it is now coining new terms: ‘land aggregation’ and ‘assembly’.
The expansion of National Highway 34, that links Kolkata with Siliguri, has been put on hold because the project involves land acquisition.