Nandigram ready for siege

The situation was tense today, with the CPIM party office at Rajarampur Chowk set on fire and a Trekker belonging to Niranjan Mandal, local committee secretary, being destroyed by a mob.

Singur8217;s 997-acre acquisition was nothing compared with what the government plans at Haldia. The area involved here: 14,500 acres. The plans: an SEZ including a mega chemicals and petrochemicals hub, and a shipyard.

A visit to the area indicated that even Wednesday8217;s clashes, which caught the government off guard, were planned to the last detail: the way villagers put up barricades at every entry point, the way they blocked the Nandigram-Sonachura road to prevent the police from entering their village; and even the way they protested and maintained a single version all through their protest.

Even the way they arrange meetings and the way in which leaders of SUCI and Trinamool Congress were brought to meetings in Gar Chakraberia and Sonachura village one after the other 8212; all pointed to a well-knit movement. Strangely enough, the government has not publicly begun the acquisition. But at the block level, the preparations are on, with various government orders in circulation.

Wednesday8217;s clashes were sparked by the leak of one such order, dated December 28, in which the Chief Executive Officer of the Haldia Development Authority lists the mouzas to be acquired. The preparations began on Wednesday night, when villagers came out with fire torches in hand and started digging roads strategically to block entry points for Nandigram, Block 1. Even serpentine roads through villages were blocked.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested six Naxalites 8212; one each from the AICTU and AISA and four from the CPIMLiberation 8212; from an area near Tekhali in Sonachura village on charges of inciting violence in the area. A laptop has been recovered from them, police said. A police picket was posted at Kalicharanpur and its neighbouring villages of Nandigram block in the district as a precautionary measure.

Trinamool ransacks WBIDC office, 3 injured

KOLKATA: A group of Trinamool Congress supporters forced their way into the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation in BBD Bag on Thursday and vandalised the second floor office in the building. The office is located in the high security zone of Raj Bhawan but there was no police cover for it. Over 20 people 8212; three of them women 8212; allegedly barged into the office shouting slogans and attacked staff, ransacked furniture, telephone sets and computer sets. The group fled after a 20-minute mayhem when some office members chased them. In the fracas, three WBIDC employees have been injured.