People's Democracy

                        Trinamul-�Maoists� Alliance

                        Exposed Once Again

                        B Prasant

EVEN as the Trinamulis in league with the Pradesh Congress goons continue to run rampage across Bengal, evidence of the written kind has been unearthed about the link that very much exists between the Trinamulis and the 'Maoists'. 

Three Trinamuli history-sheeters by the name of Radheyshyam Giri, Gourhari Mondal, and Prakash Munian, all in jail for a variety of grim crimes, wrote a missive to the left extremists from a state of incarceration � how they smuggled the letter out is a question the administration shall have to ponder over � and it was published ad verbatim in the Matangini, a mouthpiece of the �Maoists� in its June issue.

The letter states that the �movement going on in the western region of Bengal must be carried forward and we hope that you [the 'Maoists'] shall take the correct responsibility in this regard.�  The letter ends with a formal salutation of �Band� Mataram.�  They have  also accused didi & co of having 'forgotten those rotting in jail,� after having �tasted power.�  �United movement� has been identified by these criminals as the weapon of choice against the CPI(M) and the Left Front government in Bengal.

Earlier, the �people�s committee� leader and Trinamuli goon Chhatradhar Mahato detailed out his cosy association of more than two decades with the Congress and then the Trinamul Congress.  In an odd twist, the Bengal unit of the BJP, a political nonentity in this state if ever there was one, has now put forward a sonorous claim that the person concerned is their party activist and not of the Trinamul Congress!

Elsewhere in a related development, four �Maoists� were arrested by the police on charges of murder.  The criminals taken into custody include the notorious gunman of the left sectarians, Panchu Soren involved in the recent killings of CPI(M) workers as well as a �Maoist� �squad� member Biswanath Mahato.  Interestingly, both Soren and Mahato are members of the �people�s committee� that Chhatradhar heads.

In reprisal, the �Maoists� killed two CPI(M) workers at Dhurua in the red clay zone of Midnapore.  This happened on July 11.  Those killed were comrades Baren Mahato and Gurucharan Mahato.  The local Party offices were set on fire, the villagers terrorised, and warnings issued that anyone found supporting the CPI(M) shall be killed after a �public hearing'.

In the meanwhile, on July 13, there was an attack on the police camp at Dharampur. There was an hour-long gunfight after which the �Maoists� disappeared across the border into Jharkhand. This was the first organised assault with automatic firearms in the jangal mahal since the police and para-military forces have entered the area to bring back normalcy and end the reign of terror by the left sectarians.  At Uluberia on the same day, a young student of class VI succumbed to the injuries that the Trinamulis had inflicted on his body on July 9 for his support to the CPI(M), a stand from which the young lad would not move even when threatened with weapons. Biman Basu, secretary of the Bengal CPI (M) has condemned the killings by the �Maoists� and the Trinamulis.

In the hill areas of the Darjeeling district, during the same period that we report on, the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJM) has called for an indefinite �bandh� and has threatened to cause bodily harm to those who stand opposed to this bare anti-people gesture. In Darjeeling town, government offices as well as educational institutions have been forced to close down, as have been shops and establishments.  The Darjeeling unit of the CPI(M) has condemned the bandh and has said that this would negatively affect all prospects of development of the hill areas. 

TRINAMULI BOARD MAKES

A MESS OF DEVELOPMENT

Coming to office with the slogan of a �change for the better,� the Trinamuli-run Midnapore East Zilla Parishad (ZP) has instead paved the road to �change for the worse' in the one year they have run the ZP.  A brief run through the state-of-affairs of the various developmental schemes will leave no doubt about the clear non-performance of the ZP.

The first instalment of the Indira Awas Yojana could not be utilised.  Since no utilisation certificate could be submitted by the ZP, the district has, in addition, been deprived of the Rs 40 crore due to it in the second instalment.

The report states that in the past one year only eight per cent of the houses could be set up, depriving the poor of residential structure.  A total of fewer than 350 houses could be constructed in the �winds of change.�

Not even 50 per cent of the funds allotted for the NREGA scheme could be utilised by the Trinamulis.  The ZP was allotted Rs 22 crore 55 lakh for NREGA out of which the ZP could utilise just under Rs 11 crore 11 lakh. Thus, the available man-days have gone concomitantly down depriving the poor of livelihood.  It worked out that one person could work for just 16 days on an average per annum. There is a widespread allegation that thousands of rupees are being siphoned off through creation of bogus job cards.

The road network has been the subject of sad neglect.  A mere four work orders have been issued for road construction in place of the expected 100-odd.  The water supply project has halted depriving thousands of people potable water. The stoppage of the water supply project also affects the irrigation work substantially negatively.  All 32 schemes have been sent to the cold storage and a fund of Rs 3.5 crore lie idle.

The inaction of the ZP has concomitantly affected the Panchayat Samities (PS) and the Gram Panchayats (GP).  Without proper monitoring the district is about to lose the honorific title of �clean district� or �Nirmal Zillah� awarded to it by the central and state governments.  The work of constructing sanitary toilets has ceased.  There is also wide manipulation in the preparation of the BPL list in this district under the new, anti-people dispensation of the Trinamulis.