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Durgapur, Feb. 3: Over 300 villagers who had given land for a Rs 5,000-crore fertiliser plant in Burdwan’s Panagarh today demonstrated in front the site for close to three hours demanding jobs and allegedly stopped trucks from carrying construction material into the compound.
The protesters alleged police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse them but the law-enforcers denied the charge.
Sources in the district administration said that when the erstwhile Left government acquired 480 acres in 2008-09 for the project, being set up by the Mumbai-based Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd, it had promised compensation, free coaching at Industrial Training Institutes for one educated member of each land-loser family and job for the member in a company at the proposed Panagarh industrial complex where the fertiliser plant is coming up. The government had also promised to give 0.05 bigha of developed land for every bigha acquired.
The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation had handed over the land to Matix in July 2010. Matix is setting up a 3 million-tonne urea-production unit and a 33MW captive power plant with a dedicated water reservoir and steam-generation facility.
The villagers alleged that they had not got anything other than the compensation of Rs 10.8 lakh per acre.
Land-losers marched to the plant site with banners and placards around 8am and sat on a dharna in front of the gate. The leaders of the local land losers’ welfare committee assembled inside a pandal in front of the gate and started shouting slogans.
A large police contingent was present at the site as the agitation was pre-planned. But the “peaceful” protest turned violent after the plant’s security in-charge, P.K. Basu, allegedly refused to allow the farmers to enter the site.
The protesters allegedly stopped some trucks carrying construction material from entering the site, sparking an altercation between them and Basu. “Then the police lathicharged us. Four farmers suffered injuries,” said Krishna Dayal Karmakar, the convener of the committee.
“We had requested Basu to allow us to enter the plant to speak to the executives about our demand. But he refused and kicked us and asked the police to beat us,” said Narayan Goswami, a land loser.
Shyamal Mandal, another land loser, said: “We had given up our land in the hope that we would get jobs. We won’t allow the company to carry on work unless the security in-charge apologises to us. We want jobs.” The agitation was lifted after Basu apologised around 10.30am. He, however, refused to speak to the media.
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