A few thousands of daily wage workers in Singur block in Hooghly Loksabha constituency patiently count days for the 30th of April – the day they will cast their votes for the Lok Sabha elections. They regularly attend rallies of the Trinamool Congress, often travel to Kolkata to crowd the rallies of the ruling party. They will also have to vote for the party in the coming elections. This is a not a bondage of loyalty towards the party, but a bondage of helplessness. The Trinamool Congress is holding five crores of rupees as ransom, the money that is due to the workers as hard earned wages for grueling manual work done in NREGA.
In Shibrambati village in Balambati gram Panchayat, there are workers who have not received their NREGA wages for a month and half. The ruling party has withheld the wages. There has been complains that the Block Development Officer of Singur block Bishnu Kabiraj has withheld the NREGA wages of poor workers in many gram panchayats including Balarambati on instructions of the ruling party. According to the Act, NREGA wages must be paid within a fortnight of completion of work. But how can these poor daily wage workers fight for their rights? The CPI(M) has decided to put forward the demand for payment of wages in Singur to the Election Commission. The Kisan Sabha is also preparing for mass mobilization on this issue.
The farmers who were reluctant to sell their land for the factory in Singur also wait in quiet despair. These farmers have still not regained their land, nor have they received any compensation. Each month they receive a few kilos of rice from the State government, that too not regularly. How long do they have to live in such humiliating poverty?
The people have witnessed much hypocrisy and corruption of the ruling party in the last few years. Government land of three acres in Singur market where farmers sold their produce have been sold off to promoters. The Tapasi Malik Kisan Mandi developed by the State government is a non-starter. Not a single farmer has stepped into the Kisan Mandi to sell their produce yet. The Singur College located in the premises of Mahamaya High School inaugurated by several ministers of the state government, remain closed. There are no teachers in the college. The students have also left. The super specialty hospital and trauma centre promised by the Chief Minister is a distant dream.
The farmers of the area have been subjected to unabated oppression of the ruling party. There are many in Polba-Dadpur block in Hooghly who lost their life’s savings in the Saradha ponzy scheme. In Puinan and Maheswarpur markets farmers were forced by the police to sell their produce at extremely low prices. The three government-owned rice mills in Dadpur area do not purchase paddy from small and marginal farmers. In case they do, the farmers are forced to give them 20-25 kg paddy extra per quintal. In Dhanekhali Bidhan Sabha constituency Trinamool goons forcefully harvested and took away the crops from farmlands. In the Panchayat elections, opposition could not field candidates in 223 out of 264 seats. From Dhanekhali 72 left front supporters were evicted by the Trinamool and are still homeless. The administration has reluctantly agreed to bring them back to cast their votes on April 24, on instructions from the Election Commission.
The people of Dhanekhali bear testimony to the reign of terror unleashed by the Trinamool Congress since it came to power. Ramani Mandi and her infant daughter were burnt alive in their home in Belmuri gram Panchayat. Manual wage worker Kachan Malik was murdered, Bholanath Malik and Mrityunjoy Ray committed suicide unable to tolerate the torture meted out to them by miscreants. Naren De, senior leader of the Left Front and ex-minister, ex-MLA Ajit Patra and supporters of Forward Block were attacked on December 8, 2013.
Early on Monday April 21, more than a thousand people came out spontaneously to participate in the election rally of CPI(M) candidate Pradeep Saha, starting from Mulgram in Dhanekhali. People of Hooghly are standing up in resistance against the rule of terror, violence and falsehoods.
April 21, 2014
Courtesy: Ganashakti
http://ganashakti.com/bengali/