WB govt says peace process on at Nandigram

 Continued violence due to protests against land acquisition for a special economic zone in West Bengal's East Midnapur district left at least ten policemen injured, four of them seriously, as security personnel fired in the air to ward off a stone-pelting crowd which also burnt down a CPI(M) office today.

Trouble began early in the morning when a large contingent of policemen tried to march into the Nandigram area, nearly 150 km south west of Kolkata, after their vehicles could not enter due to trenches dug on the roads.

IGP (Western Range) A Gupta told PTI that at least 10 policemen were injured in the brickbatting and seven were rushed to hospital.

He said police fired six rounds in the air when they were attacked by the members of the 'Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee', (Committee Against Eviction) spearheading the agitation against the proposed land acquisition for the SEZ planned to be set up by Indonesia's Salim Group.

The police subsequently retreated to the Nandigram police station after being confronted by a stone-pelting mob.

The mob then set on fire a CPI-M office at Dinabhandupur in the jurisdiction of Nandigram police station, Gupta said.

The entire area, which has witnessed repeated violence since January 3, when the problem first started, continued to be tense as the opposition-sponsored state-wide 24-hour bandh crippled life in the trouble-torn East Midnapore district.

 Updated at 1330 hrs: Normal life was hit across West Bengal today during the state-wide bandh called by the opposition parties in protest against the violence in Nandigram with 350 arrested for trying to enforce the shutdown.

Streets in the metropolis wore a deserted look as most private buses, mini buses and taxis remained off the roads. Only some state-run buses and trams could be seen. Metro services, however, were normal.

IGP (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said that 350 people were arrested from various parts of the state for trying to enforce the bandh, but no major incident was reported till noon.

Senior Congress leader and former city Mayor Subrata Mukherjee was arrested from the Gariahat area in south Kolkata while leading a procession in support of the bandh called by Trinamool Congress, Congress and some other parties.

Kanojia said that normal attendance was reported at the Kolkata and Haldia ports, the industrial belt and the IT hub at Salt Lake Sector-V.

Train services were affected in both the Eastern and the South Eastern Railway with bandh supporters squatting on the tracks, railway sources said.

Some long-distance trains arrived at and departed from the Howrah and Sealdah stations before the bandh began.