Nandigram villagers cope with dispossession - NDTV.com - News on Nandigram villagers cope with dispossession

Nandigram villagers cope with dispossession - NDTV.com - News on Nandigram villagers cope with dispossession
Nandigram villagers cope with dispossession
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Monideepa Banerjie

Saturday, March 24, 2007 (Nandigram):


It's been more than a week since 14 people died in the clash between Nandigram villagers and the police, and life is not even beginning to limp back to normal.

Instead, what is dawning on the people on both sides of the battleline, the CPM and the Bhoomi Uchched Pratirodh Committee, is that they are all dispossessed.

Almost three months ago, as tension spiralled over rumours of land acquisition for an SEZ, they were driven out of their homes at Sonachura and half a dozen other villages by the Bhoomi Uchched Pratirodh Committee.

Since then, about 3500 CPM supporters have been homeless and the worst sufferers, women and children.

"I have nothing left. I have no home left to go back to. We are really suffering in this camp. There is no guarantee of food; at night we stay awake, thanks to the mosquitoes. When we went to Kolkata, they came and raided this camp," said Nilima Das, CPI(M) supporter.

"They have set up a system. They say if you want to stay in your homes, you have to pay Rs 10 or 20,000. Otherwise, they threatened to get miscreants and torture our women. How can we stay at home in such circumstances?" said Santosh Das, CPI(M) supporter.

One of the historic battles of March 14, as it were, was fought on a bridge in Sonachura area and somebody with a sense of history has put that down on paper and ink.

Entry into the historic Sonachura area, it says, and a black flag flutters above it rather ominously.

The great divide

The divide between the people on either side of the bridge is so sharp, it will take much more than a brick and mortar structure to heal the breach.

On the Bhoomi Uchched Pratirodh Committee side of the bridge, life has not been any easier for the women and children.

On March 14, women and children were pushed to the forefront by the Committee as a human shield during the battle with the police.

The terror of that experience still hasn't left the women. Entire families have left the area and those who have stayed are jittery.

"Of course we are afraid. But where do I go with my children? Our relatives live far away at Chandipur. I can't go there, so I am staying on," said Nilima Majhi, Bhoomi Committee supporter.

"For the last few days I was living elsewhere. How can I stay here? We are being terrorised," said Narmada Seth, Bhoomi Committee Supporter

As the battle of nerves continues between CPI-M supporters and those of the Bhoomi Uchched Pratirodh Committee, the first tenuous sign of a return to normalcy.

Ganesh Mondal has reopened his paan shop at Khejuri for the first time in three months. His shop is right next to a wall pockmarked with bullet holes.

There is some debate about how the bullet holes came to be there. But like those holes, perhaps the scars will eventually begin to fade.