In relief race,Trinamool beats CPM

At Pirakata High School where it has set up its biggest relief camp,nearly 800 people mostly women and children from villages like Jamboni,Dhanghori,Kudia,Melda,Sarboria and others have taken shelter.

I came here to save my family and myself, said 80-year-old Jamuna Singho of Melda village. It was last Thursday that the policemen raided our village. Everybody ran away as they beat up men and women. They spared me because of my age and I fled the house with my daughter-in-law, said Jamuna.

She acknowledges that her family has traditionally been a CPM supporter. But when the Peoples Committee (Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities) asked us to join their rally,my son went, she says.

Maya Das,who has also taken refuge in the camp,claims to have been beaten up by the troops with lathis,leaving wounds all over her body. They said it is because of us that the Maoists rule here, said Das,whose husband died a year back. She had been hiding out in the jungle till she came to the camp.

Trinamool leader and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikari says they are not asking the political leanings of those taking shelter in party camps. We are aware that many of the victims are CPM voters. Initially our partys name was put in posters near the camp,but we got it removed so that anyone can take shelter.

Nepal Singho,the Salboni block president of the Trinamool,says they dont fear the Maoists but the CPM and police. Maoists are harmless. They will not hurt us and therefore we need no security for the relief camp, he says.

In contrast,at the Bhadutola Local Committee office of the CPM,around 30 km from Lalgarh,where a relief camp was expected to be set up,there is no one in sight except cadres watching

television.

We arranged for a relief camp,but no one wants to stay with us here fearing they will be targets of the Maoists. Yesterday two dozen people,party supporters and local leaders came here,I fed them and asked them to stay. They all refused. I understand their problem, said Santi Bhuin,Bhadutolla Local Committee secretary.

We are dealing with the problem politically, said Dipak Sarkar,CPI(M) District Committee secretary of West Midnapore. It will take some time to regain peoples trust and win back Lalgarh.

Meanwhile,as part of its relief efforts,the state Government distributed foodgrains and promised cash 6 kg of rice and Rs 60 per family.