WB ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS-2011

ELECT WB LEFT FRONT GOVERNMENT FOR 8TH SUCCESSIVE TERM

Saturday, November 21, 2009

KABIR SUMAN, MP ON CORRUPTION IN HIS PARTY TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

COMMENTS MADE BY KABIR SUMAN, MP ON HIS PARTY TRINAMOOL CONGRESS AND SUPREMO MAMATA BANERJEE IN AN INTERVIEW TO TIMES OF INDIA DATED 18TH NOVEMBER, 2009

‘…. he was tired of pursuing MPLAD projects that local Trinamool leaders want to ‘monopolize’

“They want him to just stay at home and sign the papers.”

“Local party interests were hampering his development programmes.”

“Whenever I try to raise an issue, the leaders try to divert it urge me to sing a song instead.”

“…. the party had turned him into a slave.”

“I am sick and tired of these people. Shovan Chattopadhyay (Kolkata Municipal Corporation borough chairperson and a Mamata Banerjee loyalist) told me I need not go to the villages. He asked me to stay at home and sign the papers. If that is so, why the hell am I an MP? Let the MPLAD renamed Party-LAD. They want to do whatever they feel like”.

The singer complained that when he refused to sign on the dotted line, the local leaders hurled buses at him at public meetings.

“I am very sorry to say that my party is full of petty and corrupt leaders at the local level who are not letting me work for the development of my constituency and there is no redressal in sight. I am so fed up with the fact that though I am an MP, I have very little freedom to work on my own. That is why I burst out at the press conference.”

“They (Trinamool leaders) want me to hand over the funds (MPLAD) to them so that they can spend the money on items that they think are important. Needless to say, I tried to find out what their plans are and I am convinced that their intentions are dishonest.”

“I tried to attract her (Mamata Banerjee) attention to corrupt party men in my constituency several times. Unfortunately, I was unable to convince her. Each time she would say, “you rather sing a song!”

“I am feeling helpless about the fact that as an MP I am not being able to address the problems of my area.”

“But none does anything to solve my problems. No one even tries to bring these corrupt party men to book.”

“There’s no denying that I am upset. This is not how I wanted to work as an MP.”

Thursday, November 19, 2009

MAOISTS LOOT AND PLUNDER NATURAL RESOURCES

REDS GOT 30% CUT IN KODA’S MINING DEALS (TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATA, 16TH NOVEMBER 2009 by Pradeep Thakur/TNN)

Naxalites Received ‘Fees’ For Providing Cover To Illegal Operation In Jharkhand

Maoists never tire of styling themselves as the vanguard of resistance to the plunder of resources in the tribal dominated regions citing this as one of the justifications for class warfare.

But as investigations into the gigantic Jharkhand scam progresses, it turns out they were party to the loot, cornering a big share of booty from “illegal mining” which allegedly thrived during Madhu Koda’s chiefministership. Interrogation of four aides of the former Jharkhand chief minister, including his personal assistant Harinder Singh, at Delhi by Enforcement Directorate (ED) reveals Koda issued around 200 prospective mining leases – for exploration of minerals in the state – apart from 40 for mining. Though prospective mining leases are not an authorization for mining scarce resources, it is now learnt that in most of the cases businessmen who procur4ed them resorted to large-scale mining. The share of the illegal activity was equally distributed among politicians, bureaucrats and the ultras who charged a hefty fee for providing protection to the illegal operation, say officials.

Sources said the Koda aide admitted that the political establishment received Rs.10 Lakh per acre at the time of issue of such a license (total area extends to over hundreds of acres) while Naxalites got 20% - 30% on each truckload of minerals taken out of such mine. The bureaucrats who were supposed to check any illegal activity received 10% - 15% of the share of the minerals and the remainder, about 50%, was the businessmen’s share in the loot.

Also parts of this nexus are some politicians and bureaucrats who reaped rich dividend. As ED estimates Koda & Co’s worth to be at several hundreds of crore rupees, Maoists, it seems, had benefited equally from these nefarious deals.

Cross-examination of one of the alleged Koda front man and promoters Balaji Bullion Group of companies, Manoj Punamia, reveals the later had been working for many other high-profile people and that Koda was not the only ‘business’ he had in his basket. His negotiations for an SEZ in Noida, worth Rs. 4,800 crore, where payment was to be allegedly made in euros, and his other real estate contacts worth hundreds of crores in UP hint at his wide network across political affiliations and state boundaries. His expertise in managing ‘entries’ and handling high value cash transactions in banks and through hawala only helped his benefactors to launder big money in Indiana and abroad.

Monday, November 16, 2009

NEW DRAMA OF RAILWAY MINISTER ON SINGUR

On 3rd October, 2008 just on the eve of Durga Puja in 2008 the Tatas were forced to leave unwillingly Singur even after completion of 95% of their Nano Car Factory spending about 1500 crores as a result of the conspiratorial violent agitation of Mamata Banerjee launched in connivance with Maoists, Congress, SUCI, BJP, communal fundamentalists, perverted & spineless intellectuals and foreign funded human rights activists with the financial assistance and guidance from the industrial competitors, finance capital and imperialists. The damage caused to the future of West Bengal is undoubtedly not only irreparable but also unprecedented.

In fact, the one and only aim of this dirty political exercise was to destabilize the Left Front Government throwing to the winds the interests of the state and install Mamata Banerjee as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal.

It is none else but she who forcibly did not also allow coming up of much-awaited Chemical Hub at Nandigram, expansion of National Highways, construction of Hospitals, I.T. Parks, Bridges, Aerodromes, Industries, Thermal Power Plants and other developmental works in West Bengal.

However, the Left Government did not give up hope and after much endeavour it was able to rope in BHEL to set up a 1600 MW Power Plant at the abandoned 997 acres of Nano factory at Singur. BHEL is one of the Nav Ratnas owned by Central Government, which has orders worth 30,000 crores in its hand now. There is a flicker of hope for Tata Motors’ abandoned Singur site. A team from central government-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) visited the place along with state government officials for the project with the West Bengal Power Development Corporation. BHEL General Manager S.C. Mittal was accompanied by WBPDC managing director Debashis Sen. The team also met Tata Motors representatives at the site. The setting up of the Power Plant is under process between BHEL and the Left Front Government.

But Mamata Banerjee is adamant not to allow establishment of any industry at Singur or in West Bengal. So, she, being the personification of destruction, distortion of facts, arrogance, duplicity, dictatorship, violence, provocations, hypocrisy, whims and blatant lies, has again plunged into the arena with the old demand of return of 400 acres of land to the landowners unwilling to part with their land or hand over the entire land to her for the establishment of a Railway Coach Factory.

There is a new coach factory coming up at Rae Bareli. She has announced an EMU and MEMU factory in Halishahar in Bengal in her Budget. Her predecessor has announced another factory at Palghat in Kerala, where the state government will provide 1,000 acres of land free of cost to the Railways. The capacity of Integrated Coach Factory and the Railway Coach Factory is also being increased. So, how can another coach factory be viable?"

If it is a locomotive factory she wants, there are doubts about that, too. There are already two locomotive factories under construction in Bihar - Chhapra and Madhepura. What will she do with a new one in Bengal? The person who drove the Tata factory out of Singur now wants to build another factory.

There is no denying the fact that Mamata Banerjee herself knows well both the demands are unreasonable as well as impossible to meet on the following grounds.

(1) It is not 400 but around 181 acres only.

(2) The 181 acres of land is not a compact single piece of land. It is a fragmented one consisting of thousands pieces of broken plots and remains scattered all over the site. If these fragmented plots are to be returned, neither BHEL nor the Railways will be able to set up any industry with about 1500 private owners residing with their families in the midst of the coming up factory.

(3) Last, but not the least. Once acquired, no land can be returned until and unless the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is amended suitably for the purpose. In case of non-utilization, the land has to be put into auction by the state government and the highest bidder will get the same in terms of present provisions of the relevant act.

The fact of the matter is that Mamata Banerjee is not at all interested in setting up any industry there. Her only disastrous objective is to dramatize the issue in order to destroy industrialization of West Bengal and thereby augment her own vested political interests with the help and guidance of the Maoists, Congress, BJP, SUCI, sold-out intellectuals and foreign funded human rights activists.

During the period of both Narshimha Rao and Atal Bihari Bajpai, she as the Railway Minister and the Coal Minister had inaugurated whimsically a number of projects without budgetary support or approval of the concerned ministries. None of them have yet been implemented and the lands acquired for these inaugurated projects have still been lying vacant. The drama does not stop here. She has been flagging off old trains in new names and also laying afresh foundation stones of old projects, which were inaugurated long back with foundation stone still lying therein.

She has been acquiring forcibly thousands of acres of most fertile lands in UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states for the implementation of the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors and Industrial Corridor ignoring the vehement objection and stiff resistance of the land losers. Is it not double standard or duplicity?

She holds an important portfolio in the Central Government and also is one of the most powerful ministers. If she is really interested for the welfare of the farmers, instead of creating problems for others, she can exert her office to get the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 amended easily in favour of the unwilling landowners.

It is unfortunate we live in such a country where people are swayed away by wave, hypocrisy, duplicity and blatant false propaganda of the political leaders and ‘so-called’ political leaders and social workers without considering the fact, ground reality and merit of the case.

MEDHA PATKAR PLAYS DUPLICITY ON FARMERS LOSING FERTILE AGRICULTURAL LAND FOR EASTERN AND WESTERN DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDORS

Mamata Banerjee as the Indian Railway Minister with the financial assistance of Japan has decided to accelerate the western and eastern Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) along its busy trunk routes to augment the transport capacity and meet the growing requirements of moving freight.

(1) The western Delhi-Mumbai DFC covering 1,483-km through Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR), Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra at a cost of Rs.26, 124 crores will stretch from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on the national capital's outskirts covering Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

High fertile farming land falling in villages of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra are covered under western corridor project.

Another project, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor will also be developed simultaneously through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) along with the freight corridor.

The Railway Ministry expects to complete both the freight corridor and the industrial corridor by 2013.

(2) The eastern DFC will extend 1,806 km from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata. It will be extended in future to serve the new deep-sea port in the Kolkata area and to largely serve coal and steel traffic. Here also fertile 3-crop/4-crop land will be acquired for the purpose.

The railways need to acquire 12,500 hectares over 51 districts in seven states for the proposed eastern and western freight corridor projects. The railways are demanding 42 per cent more 3-crop/4-crop fertile farming land for the project than what was previously envisaged. This is in sharp contrast to the earlier estimate of 8,833 hectares.

The railways have prepared land acquisition plans for 2,200 km. It has already issued a gazette notification for acquisition of 3-crop/4-crop high fertile farming land in villages of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra covering a stretch of 1,077 km.

By the end of January 2009, the railways will be able to acquire nearly 100 km near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The remaining areas will be acquired over six months.

The Railway Ministry on September 29, 2008 had published a notification declaring its intention to acquire 3-crop/4-crop fertile farming lands in Gujarat for execution, maintenance, management and operation of special rail corridor project following which farmers losing their 3-crop/4-crop fertile farming lands in these villages had raised about 1301 objections.

A year later on September 15, 2009, the government published a Notification stating that it has acquired 700 hectares of 3-crop/4-crop fertile farming land in 31 villages in three talukas and Vadodara city of Gujarat for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor Project.

Farmers and sharecroppers in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have started agitation against the acquisition of highly fertile agriculture land for the proposed Freight Corridor.

They have suggested redesigning of the routes for sparing valuable 3-crop/4-crop fertile farming lands from acquisition and said the compensation package offered to these farmers in lieu of their 3-crop/4-crop fertile farming land was very less and not acceptable to them. The Railways have taken away their fertile farming land at throw away prices and rendered them jobless.

The farmers of Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh under the banner of Krishi Bhoomi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti and Satya Foundation (SF) have started agitation against the acquisition of their fertile farming land for the proposed freight corridor of Indian Railways.

It was seen that during Singur and Nandigram episodes, all the opposition political parties including TMC, Congress, BJP, SUCI, Maoists and Naxalites had not only supported the violent agitation of Mamata Banerjee in the name of saving fertile agricultural land but also actively participated in the same. Besides, Mahasweta Devi and other ‘pseudo’ intellectuals and ‘so-called’ human rights activists had day and night campaigned vociferously against the Left Front Government and helped the agitators and goons in all possible ways to sabotage the industrial resurgence. Shri Lal Krishna Advani, Shri Amar Singh and other leaders of anti-Leftist national political parties had regularly been to Nandigram and Singur to add fuel to fire by expressing their solidarity with Mamata Banerjee and the agitators.

As a result, dreams of two major projects have been shattered. Opposition to government intervention in land acquisition helped Mamata Banerjee gain enormous political mileage, but it has left industry in West Bengal with Hobson’s choice

It is an irony that the same Mamata Banerjee has been now engaged in acquiring forcibly most fertile lands in seven states for Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors despite stiff and vehement opposition from the landowners and farmers. But the said political parties, national leaders, ‘pseudo’ intellectuals, Maoists, Naxalites and ‘so-called’ human rights activists are shamelessly silent on the matter. Nobody has yet met the affected farmers to give a patient hearing to them and address their grievances.

There cannot be separate rules for separates states in this country on acquisition of land. But yes, there is. Strange is the politics in this country.

The fact is that all forces ranging from ultra leftists to ultra rightists including those of communal, imperialist, finance capital and a section of media have ganged up with one and only aim to dislodge the Left Front Government anyway and at any cost. They donot abide by any logic, reason or fact. They with their obligation to imperialism went against all norms of civilized political behaviour and supported TMC which is nothing but a nuisance to Indian Politics dominated by one eccentric person devoid any ideology or policy

There is no denying the fact that hundreds of farmers have already committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and other states. Thousands and thousands acres of fertile land has been acquired under duress in many states for industries and other developmental works depriving the farmers of their landed property. But none of the saviors of tribals, peasants and the underprivileged are seen in the picture to express their solidarity with the deprived. Is it not ambivalence?
The double standard, fraudulency and duplicity maintained by political frauds, perverted intellectuals and foreign funded human rights activists are nothing but mockery of democracy, integrity, transparency and honesty. These people stand exposed today. History will judge judiciously these swindlers working on the pay roll of imperialists, foreign finance capital and big business houses in the days to come and throw them into dustbin.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

SO-CALLED HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SILENT ON MURDER OF 75 YEAR OLD WOMAN AND RAPE OF HER DAUGHTER-IN-LAW BY MAOIST –TMC GOONS

The unprecedented brutality and violence of the Maoist-TMC action squad members in West Bengal particularly one women and minor girls keep on increasing dangerously with the passage of each day.

(1) In last July 2009 a poor underprivileged woman Anjali Maiti of Tikashi Gram Panchayat under Khejuri Police Station was repeatedly raped in a stretch for some days by Maoist-TMC action squad members taking advantage of the absence of her husband, who, being a CPI (M) supporter, had fled to save his life from the wrath of the killers leaving behind his wife to look after the ancestral home.

(2) On 27th September 2009 at about 9-00 p.m. 35-40 Maoist-TMC armed goons attacked Muslim dominated locality of Mollapara in CPI (M) supporter village called Baradighrui under Purshura Police Station in Hooghly district of West Bengal. During this attack, they torched most of the houses of the poor people and assaulted seriously CPI (M) farmer leader Seikh Hashibul Hussain. His waist and legs were not only broken to pieces but was also repeatedly stabbed seriously in the back with pointed spears.

He was admitted to Arambagh Hospital and after fighting with death for 11 days he expired on 9th October 2009.

After attacking Seikh Hashibul Hussein, they went to the nearby house of another CPI (M) supporter family belonging 75 year old Saifunissa. Seeing them approaching, all her sons named Sk. Mossaraf Hussain, Sk. Nazir, Sk. Mujibur Rehaman, Sk. Moyunuddin, Sk. Nayeem and other male members fled to save their lives leaving behind female members and children. The goons started to assault females. One of them snatched 1.1/2 years grandson Riyaz from the lap of his mother and tried to throw him into the nearby pond. Seeing this Saifunissa prevented him from doing so. At this the goons became furious and started to beat her with sticks and bamboos. She received serious injuries in her left leg. The brutality of the Maoist-TMC criminals did not stop here. Some of them caught one of her daughter-in-laws Siddique Begum and gangraped her repeatedly. Other female members were also molested.

Saifunissa remained lying in the house suffering for two days without any treatment as nobody dared enter her house. On 29th September 2009 she was rescued by the police and admitted to Arambagh Government Hospital.

On seeing deterioration in her health, she was referred to S.S.K.M. Hospital on 9th October 2009 in a serious condition. The attending physicians expressed the need for amputation of her left leg to save her life. But she was practically in a coma without responding to medical treatment and succumbed to her fatal serious injuries at 4-30 p.m. on 4th November 2009.

Instead of showing any sympathy for the old lady of 75, Mamata Banerjee, in order to protect the offenders, declared brazenly in a mass meeting at Arambagh in the afternoon of the same day that Saifunissa Bibi had died a natural death. She did not stop here. She incited her supporters to create such a situation so that the Central Government will be forced to impose President’s Rule in West Bengal advancing the assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2011.

Next day Saifunissa Bibi was laid in rest in the graveyard of her family by her sons and near relatives. But all of them had to leave their ancestral home immediately to pass their days in the refugee camps.

(3) At night of 22nd October 2009 in the village of Mogra in Ramchak Gram Panchayat under Moyna Police Station in East Midnapur, West Bengal the Maoist-TMC action squad members under the leadership of one Pankaj Mondal in a conciliation meeting asked a widow and mother of three children Smt. Malabika Maji to commit suicide after giving her bad name on false grounds. When the helpless lady refused to do so, she was tied to a big tree and torched after pouring kerosene on her body. However, she was rescued by the villagers and admitted to Moyna Rural Hospital where she is still fighting for her life.

The West Bengal Women’s Commission has already caused detailed investigations into the gruesome incidents and found all of them true. The Commission has condemned them in the strongest possible manner and recommended the state government to take exemplary drastic actions against the Maoist-TMC culprits.

But it is most unfortunate, shameful, shocking and regrettable that the ‘so-called’ contractors of the civil society and savior of tribals in the garb of intellectuals, foreign funded agents working in the guise of human rights activists and the politically motivated media have not yet come out with any statement or writing condemning the ghastly incidents of atrocities on helpless poor women because all these atrocities fall within the purview of revolutionary performance and activities of CPI (Maoist)-TMC Alliance and its vanguards fighting against the CPI (M).