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Opposition paid back in same coin in Nandigram : Buddhadeb

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday said opposition parties there were "paid back in the same coin".

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KOLKATA: Defending the recapture of Nandigram by ruling CPI(M), West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday said opposition parties there were "paid back in the same coin".
    
"They have been paid back in the same coin. Our supporters, after remaining away from their homes for 11 months, were desperate to return. They risked their lives and returned home," Bhattacharjee told a press conference here.
    
He accused the Centre of delay in sending the CRPF sought by his government for deployment in Nandigram and said had the central forces arrived in time, the situation could have been avoided.
    
"I wrote to the Home ministry on 27 October but they informed me on November 5 that they could not provide central forces because they were to be sent to Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh (where assembly polls will be held)," Bhattacharjee said.
    
Asked whether the events in Nandigram took place as a result of the failure of the police, Bhattacharjee replied "to some extent it is their failure. The police could not enter Nandigram. If they could have, the situation would have been better".
    
Bhattacharjee said he had personally called up Union Home minister Shivraj Patil and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and urged them to send central forces.
    
"One battalion of CRPF was sanctioned for Nandigram. They reached Kolkata on 11 and went to Nandigram the next day," he said.
    
Asked if he had been in touch with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bhattacharjee said "he is in Moscow."
    
Bhattacharjee said "we wanted a political solution to Nandigram. When that did not happen, we decided to deploy the CRPF and the Eastern Frontier Rifles for restoration of peace and return of the homeless."
    
Asked if it was a failure of his government, he said "not at all. Who delayed sending the central forces? It was the Centre. Initially they refused to send them".
    
Asked how CPI(M) supporters could enter Nandigram when the police had failed, Bhattacharjee said "it would have been better had the police entered. But the people had no alternative and returned home."
    
Asked whether the peace of the crematorium has returned to Nandigram, Bhattacharjee shot back "then was all that happened in the last 11 months was a sign of heavenly peace?"
    
The government, he said, had reshuffled police officers from IG to police station level, including the SP after the March 14 police firing.
    
The government would compensate all the 14 killed on March 14 -- eight in police firing and the rest in violence, he said, while the injured had been treated at government expense at hospitals.
    
The families of those killed would receive Rs two lakh each, he said. "All papers are ready. I have asked my officials to contact family members and arrange for payment."
    
He said compensation would not be paid to the injured.
    
He called upon people rendered homeless irrespective of political affiliation to return home and cooperate with the administration.

 

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