TMC govt snatching away land from farmers: Buddhadeb

The government of the Trinamool Congress, which claimed to be pro-farmer, was snatching away land given to cultivators during the Left Front regime,the former chief minister of the state Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee alleged today.

"Thousands of farmers are facing eviction from their land over which they have been enjoying patta rights for decades," Bhattacharjee told a Left Front rally here in North 24 Parganas district.

"People have started realising the impact of change under the new dispensation when rights of farmers are being snatched away," Bhattacharjee, who is also a senior CPI(M) Politburo member said.

"We can never accept eviction of farmers for whom Left Front waged a long-drawn battle against jotedars to secure their land rights," he vowed.

He said that 12,000 farmers were given pattas (land deeds) of land from landowners and jotedars at the behest of the then land and land reforms minister late Harekrishna Konar during the first United Front government in 1967.

The CPI(M) would fight against the eviction of farmers from their land, he said. Alleging that the new government was handling the administration ineptly, he said, "The Front government had almost marginalised Maoists in West Midnapore, but now they have started coming back."

Criticising the Darjeeling Agreement, Bhattacharjee said, "I am amazed that the new government wants to turn Darjeeling into Switzerland, but the people there want to create a Gorkhaland."