New Delhi: Fresh clashes broke out between members of the Land Eviction Resistance Committee and the CPI-M in Nandigram on Saturday. Three villagers were wounded in the conflict. They have been moved to a local hospital.
The clashes took place at the Tekhali and Satengabari areas after CPI-M supporters allegedly tried to force their way into the villages. Both groups reportedly exchanged fire and hurled crude bombs. Three people have been arrested so far.
Police have moved in and the situation, although tense, is now under control.
Background into Nandigram violence:
The trouble in Nandigram first erupted on January 7 after the leak of government plans to acquire 9,000 hectares of land in the area and build a petrochemical plant and shipyard in a Special Economic Zone.
Most of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), including the one that was to be set up in Nandigram, are to be built on farmland. The violence in recent months has sparked a national debate over whether farms should be razed for factories.
All those killed in March this year were farmers.
The hastily formed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh or Land Acquisition Resistance Committee, organized protests, soon degenerated into violent clashes.
After a few days of violence, in which six people were killed, West Bengal government said it would reconsider its plans, and the Centre soon followed suit, temporarily suspending the approval of new SEZ’s.
Police in West Bengal, effectively abandoned Nandigram to the farmers, who turned their villages into bristling little garrisons, digging trenches across roads and erecting barricades to keep officers out.
But the area has since been plagued by sporadic clashes between members of the resistance committee and supporters of the CPI-M.
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