Nearly five months after the violence at the Bhangar block, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday held a government event at Bhangar and assured people that the proposed power grid would bring them no harm. Violence at Bhangar on January 18, which was precipitated by land agitation protests for setting up a power grid, had claimed two lives allegedly in police firing.
“I guarantee you that there will be no harm if the electricity [power grid] is allowed,” she said at the event. Ms. Banerjee tried to differentiate the struggle against forcible land acquisition led by her at Singur and Nandigram and the resistance put up by the villages of Bhangar.
“This is different from Singur and Nandigram. There attempts were made to capture entire villages by private companies. Here outsiders are cheating villagers through misinformation,” she said. Ms Banerjee rubbished rumours around setting up of the power grid and said there were no facts to substantiate that crops would become dry and power grid would lead to infertility among locals.
“If there is no electricity, how will be there irrigation. How will the industries work, how students will go about their studies,” she asked. Ms. Banerjee also asked the locals to be aware of “false” propaganda of the outsiders —especially the Maoists — who, according to her, were making money out of the movement.
“There are some Maoists who are raising money from locals. They will run away after some time but the villagers have to stay,” she said.
The Chief Minister said a section of promoting company which had bought large tracks of land for promoting high rises had fuelled the protests as after construction of power plant it would not be able to build such buildings.
She said she was aware of arms being stored in some villages and urged the people to come forward and surrender them.
Over the past few months, police have arrested several activists and locals. Many people have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for participating in the protests.
