After being repeatedly blocked by CPI(M) activists, the CRPF on Monday moved into strife-torn Nandigram and staged a flagmarch on its outskirts.
NANDIGRAM: After being repeatedly blocked by CPI(M) activists, the CRPF on Monday moved into strife-torn Nandigram and staged a flagmarch on its outskirts even as fresh violence was reported from areas recaptured by Marxist supporters from an anti-farmland acquisition group backed by Trinamool Congress.
In a fresh peace initiative, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who had indicted the Left Front government and CPI(M) for the manner in which Nandigram was recaptured, met CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu to seek his role in restoring calm in Nandigram.
About 100 CRPF personnel staged a flag march on the outskirts of Nandigram, which witnessed violence over recapture of the area by CPI(M) whose activists have surrounded the troubled area and controlled all entry points.
Union Home Ministry sources said in Delhi that the fear of CPI(M) cadres was writ large on the faces of people in Nandigram, especially after they regained control of the area.
The CRPF personnel, accompanied by a magistrate, marched into Nandigram but not before 300 of their colleagues were prevented from accessing the area by blockade by CPI(M) supporters.
The CRPF had to return on Sunday night to Tamluk, the district headquarters of East Midnapore, after being stopped by CPI(M) supporters blocking roads to Nandigram. When they tried to enter by another road at Reahpara, they too they were prevented by Marxist activists.
East Mindapore Superintendent of Police Satyeswar Panda said CRPF personnel were blocked by CPI(M) supporters and had to turn back from Nandigram.
Gunfire, arson and looting allegedly by CPI(M) was again reported from recaptured Bhumi Ucched Pratirod Comittee (Land Acquisition Resistance Committee), supported by TC, strongholds of Garchakraberia, Sonachura and Gokulnagar in Nandigram.
In Tamluk, not very far from Nandigram, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, alleged ''CRPF is not being deployed in the sensitive areas and I demand that it be done in those areas.''
Banerjee expressed fear that senior BJP leader L K Advani, along with other NDA delegation members, would not be allowed entry into Nandigram on Tuesday when they reach there.
She said she would visit Nandigram when the situation returned to normal.
The West Bengal Governor met Jyoti Basu for 40 minutes at his Salt Lake residence and later told reporters that "I am sure that his initiatives will bring back peace in Nandigram".
Bhattacharjee welcomed the arrival of CRPF at Nandigram and said he had spoken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil during the day.
In Delhi, Union Home Ministry officials reviewed the situation in Nandigram against the backdrop of the Prime Minister's monitoring the developments in the area even during his visit to Moscow.
Meanwhile, the state's ruling Left Front Bengal received yet another jolt, with a second RSP minister Manohar Tirkey announcing his decision to quit over Nandigram on Monday saying he was ashamed to continue in government after the killings in Nandigram. Earlier, another senior RSP minister Kshiti Goswami had expressed a similar desire.
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