People's Democracy

Trinamul Ranks Disconcerted Over Internecine Killings

B Prasant

A BRUTAL killing in Calcutta’s Keoratala crematorium premises in broad daylight has put to dismay the Trinamul Congress activists. The recent incident came as part of a long line of armed feuds and gruesome tit-for-tat assaults by Trinamul Congress factions. The gangland-like rivalry between these factions caused the death of at least five Trinamul workers over a fortnight.

The killing took place on December 27 afternoon when a cortege bearing the body of the late councillor, Sheonarayan Singh, reached the crematorium. Singh had lately switched loyalty from the Congress to Ms Mamata Banerjee’s outfit.

Accompanying the funeral procession was a known historysheeter and Trinamul Congress muscleman, Manoj Kumar Singh, 38, who has several criminal cases pending against him.

Manoj Singh had to leave his earlier "safe haven" of Matiaburz when the police turned the heat on him. He, however, quickly got back to his old trade of extorting money from shady promoters and real estate dealers in South Calcutta suburbs where he found shelter. Thus he ran into the "established" kingpin of the area, Papul Maharaj, another Trinamul Congress "enforcer" of considerable notoriety.

The thugs found themselves face-to-face when the funeral cortege of Sheonarayan Singh entered the crematorium ground. All hell broke loose and there was a furious exchange of gunfire which the two crime lords let fly from the sophisticated handguns they carried. Shot in his side, Manoj sought to crawl away to safety, but was pursued and then calmly done to death by Papul and his henchmen, with two clean shots into the forehead. One of Papul’s "boys" was seen being carried off, bleeding profusely from a chest wound.

The killing has added to the Trinamul chieftain’s burgeoning woes as most district units of the outfit are getting fraught with dissensions at the grassroots (i e, trinamul) level. More so because "dissensions" in the Trinamul Congress have the inevitable tendency to lead to armed fightings and brutal internecine slayings.

Ms Banerjee’s rallies in the urban localities, few and far between, are drawing lesser crowds now and she had had to postpone, once again, her "historic" assemblage at Keshpur. The iftar politics too, which Ms Banerjee has of late been indulging in, was shot down on the Id day itself, by two senior imams of the city, Sheikh Hafizur-Rahman and Qazi Hizbur-Rahman. The two imams condemned all attempts to "deceive pious Muslims either by promising them jobs or by covering one’s head in white scarves and attending iftar parties." Without naming Sultan Ahmad, another of Ms Banerjee’s henchmen, the two imams criticised him also, for trying to "debase the Tanjum concept in a vulgar attempt to draw political mileage."

Soon after the Keoratala killing, news reached INN of a shoot-out in the industrial township of Howrah, resulting in the killing of Trinamul Congress leader, Pradosh (Bapi) Dhara. Bapi was the main accused in the double murder of Pradesh Congress leaders and Somen Mitra acolytes, Utpal Bhowmick and Debu Ghosh, some seven years back --- in the same Shibpur police station area where Bapi himself met his end.

Trinamul Congress was then yet to be born and a battle royale had just broken out in some districts of the state between Somen Mitra and Mamata Banerjee over who would control the PCC. Banerjee enjoyed the unstinted support of P R Dasmunshi during those hectic months. When lawyers of Howrah declined to take up Bapi’s case, it was Banerjee who came forward to manage legal support for the accused.

As soon as Bapi came out on bail, he resumed his trade of extortion and realtorship with elan, until the fateful afternoon of December 29 when his luck ran out. He was shot four times, at pretty close range, by three hit-men who were apparently quite well-known to him.

THE state Left Front government will set up new townships in the suburban regions adjoining the metropolis in order to lessen the mounting population pressure on the city. This was stated by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya recently while laying the foundation stone for a flyover at Tegharia. The flyover will create a short, fast-traffic bypass between the Qazi Nazrul Islam Sarani leading to the Calcutta Airport and the Rajarhat satellite township.

With the population of Calcutta about to cross the one crore figure, Bhattacharya said it was time to do advance planning towards the twin aim of alleviating the housing pressure on the city and setting up townships within easy commuting distance from the metropolis.

Bhattacharya stated that both the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the housing department had agreed that it was feasible to establish townships at Dankuni in Hooghly and Sonarpur in the South 24 Parganas district.

The proposed flyover, which will cost Rs 21 crore, will be nearly 500 metres long and will be served by two approach roads, one on each side of the structure. The flyover is being set up as a joint venture with the participation of the public works department (roads) and the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO).

Earlier, handing over keys to owners of the 304 low income group (LIG) and middle income group (MIG) housing apartments, built by the housing department at the Eastern Metropolitan (EM) bypass, Bhattacharya stressed the need to reign in the activities of promoters and realtors, frame laws and regulations to compel them to stay away from deceit, and also to ensure that their building activities take care of the safety and security of the structures. The builders will also be made to apportion a part of their housing funds towards constructing flats for people of the low income brackets. "We in the Left Front and the Left Front government are quite unwilling to allow market forces to play havoc with the limited economic clout of the common people of the state," was how Bhattacharya put it.

Heavily cross-subsidised and with the private sector’s participation, the EM bypass flats come in two sizes and two price ranges. The LIG ones are of 34.70 square metres and cost Rs 1,78,000. The MIG variety is more expensive at Rs 4,39,000 and measures 49.80 square metres. The environment is kept green with lots of open areas, grass lawns and spacious garden plots. Due to be handed to the owners by December 2001, the construction will be complete full one year in advance.

MORE than two lakh families belonging to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward communities are to be targeted by the ongoing poverty alleviation drive of the Left Front government. The people selected will be provided with margin money, bank loans at low interest rates and various forms of subsidies by the relevant departments of the state government.

This was decided at a meeting between the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and ministers Dinesh Dakua, Upen Kisku (welfare department), Maheswar Murmu (Jhargram development department) and Jogesh Barman and Bilasibala Sahis (forest department).

The rural poor will be provided with financial help as well as infrastructural aids to carry out activities like poultry farming, animal husbandry and rural transport.

An additional scheme will be launched soon to help out families living marginally above the poverty line and belonging to the backward sections of society. More than a thousand young men and women from the SC, ST and OBC communities will be provided with loans to carry out self-employment projects. The loan component will range between Rs one lakh and ten lakh. An amount of Rs ten core has been earmarked for the scheme.

The state government has already released Rs two crore in this regard. The chief minister has asked all concerned departments to execute the scheme in the remaining period of the ongoing financial year.

The government has recently sanctioned Rs 12 crore for implementing small irrigation schemes for the rural poor belonging to the SC, ST, and OBC groups.The Left Front government will set up at least five residential higher secondary schools in tribal regions of five districts in the state. These are: Bankura, Burdwan, Jalpaiguri, Midnapore and Purulia. The basic structural work of the school building at Jalpaiguri is well under way. The work for other district schools will commence shortly.

Each school will cost the state government Rs 3-4 crore and will be the first of its kind in Bengal. The schools will be equipped with boarding facilities for students and housing arrangements for teaching staff. The state government will bear the expenses in terms of salaries and other emoluments for the teaching and non-teaching staff.

THE West Bengal Left Front government will ensure that the kisans of the state are never put to selling their produce at low rates in the market. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has asked the state administration to ensure that a minimum of eight lakh metric tons of paddy are purchased by the government. He has also issued orders that in no circumstance are the rice mill owners allowed to purchase paddy at less than Rs 5.50 a kg from primary producers.

The kisans of West Bengal, Bhattacharya assured, will never be left hapless to face the plight currently facing their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. He squarely blamed the BJP-led NDA government’s shortsightedness for the rapid fall in the prices of agricultural produce because of massive imports.

Addressing a rally at Balagar in the agricultural belt of Hooghly district, Bhattacharya said the policy of throwing the portals open for tea imports which has caused grievous damage to the tea plantations in general, and the chia kamans in particular, in the north Bengal districts where tea was the primary commodity of production. A similar fate has overwhelmed the mulberry cultivation and the production of silk yarn, silk thread and silk fabric.

Bhattacharya blamed the past Congress regime for initiating the process of liberalising the national economy. This, he pointed out, the succeeding BJP regime had chosen to push ahead in a massive way.

At the Balagar meeting, the chief minister also noted the crass lack of feelings displayed by the BJP-run union government towards the victims of the devastating floods that hit the state some time ago. Despite acknowledging these floods as a national calamity, said Bhattacharya, the BJP regime was not bothered to send in even the barest modicum of assistance to help the people of Bengal.

Bhattacharya was also bitter about the way the four union ministers from West Bengal, belonging to the Trinamul Congress and the BJP, tried to make political capital out of the distress by not making any effort to press the BJP-run government to come to the help of the stricken people, if only as a humanitarian gesture. "Are they incapable of such emotions because of the venom of their hatred for the Left Front and the Left Front government?" Bhattacharya wondered.

The Balagar rally was also addressed, among others, by ministers Nimai Mal, Pratim Chatterjee and Naren De, by Mahboob Zahidi (member of parliament) and by Binod Das who presided over. (INN)