Prodded by the Centre, the West Bengal government decided to hold talks with the Bhangar land movement agitators.
A marathon meeting that lasted for more than five hours was held with Save Farm Land and Save Environment Committee on Monday during which the government agreed to look into the demands of agitators. The meeting took place at the office of the South 24 Parganas district magistrate.
Succumbing to the pressure mounted by the farmers, the state government released the leader of the movement, Alik Chakraborty, who is a politburo member of the Naxal political party, CPI(ML) Red Star. Alik, who was charged under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), was granted bail by the lower court as the prosecutor did not oppose it.
During his detention, the state government payed more than Rs 10 lakh for the treatment of Alik, who was admitted to one of the costliest private hospitals in Kolkata.
THE WEEK, in May this year, brought out how protesters turned Bhangar, where a power grid project— for which around 14 acres of land were allegedly acquired by force by the government of West Bengal in 2013—was being set up, into a liberated zone for the past 16 months. No government official or policemen were allowed to enter the 12 villages of Bhangar.
The Narendra Modi government interfered after THE WEEK published the report, and the prime minister himself asked the chief secretary of West Bengal Moly De, during a video conference, to find solutions to the hindrances before the power project. The electricity through the grid was supposed to travel to Bangladesh. Union Power Minister R.K. Singh wrote a letter to state Power Minister Sovandeb Chatterjee asking him to expedite the project and warned that the Centre would be forced to cancel it if the state does not act quickly.
In the wake of the letter, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked her officials and ministers to act swiftly. Banerjee asked the police not to interfere and requested her controversial ministers to stay away from talks with the protesters.
Interestingly, all the protesters who participated in the talks have UAPA sections attached to their names. Chakraborty, who was branded the most wanted criminal in the state before his arrest from Bhubneswar, was asked to participate in the meeting by the state government. Farmers, led by committee conveners Mirjan Ali and Mosharaf Hossain—also accused under UAPA—participated in the meeting in which a total of 46 people were present.
The villagers, who have been assured that they would be offered better compensation for their land and other benefits, agreed to allow civil servants in the liberated zone to resume the development work in the area after almost two years.
"But we are yet to allow police to come inside our area. For them we are still terrorists," said Hossain.
Sources in the government has confirmed that gradually the UAPA charges against villagers will be withdrawn if there is progress in talks. The villagers have also demanded West Bengal government to accept that three villagers, who died in gun shot last year, died due to police firing.
The government has requested the villagers to allow the project stands in the area and assured that the number of cables would be reduced or diverted from the populated areas of Bhangar. The government has also almost accepted that brick kilns would be allowed to continue operations although they could cause accidents.
So will the farmers agree to have the project in the area if all other demands are met and better compensation is given to them?
Hossain said, "We are still sticking to our previous stand of withdrawing the project. But we are happy that at least government had budged from its rigid stand."
CPI (ML) Red Star general secretary K.N. Ramchadndran refused to comment on whether the project would be accepted. "I don't want to make any comment at this juncture when villagers are engaged in talks. I will make comment later," he said.