Date:20/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/20/stories/2007042003601200.htm

National

All-party meet on Nandigram on April 22

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: In an attempt to facilitate the restoration of normality in Nandigram, the West Bengal Government has arranged for yet another all-party meeting there on April 22.

"We have spoken to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, the Superintendent of Police and the district authorities, and believe that matters are on their way to being resolved," Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy said here on Thursday.

Inaccessible

Large parts of Nandigram remain inaccessible to the police and the local administration even though the Government announced that a chemical hub would not be set up there in the wake of resistance from some locals.

The last all-party meeting, convened on April 3 by the local authorities, was boycotted by the Trinamool Congress-led Bhoomi Ucchded Pratirodh Committee. Representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party ransacked the venue of the meeting, the first to have been called since the March 14 violence that claimed 14 lives.

The hearing of witnesses as part of the executive inquiry into the violence was continuing, Mr. Roy added.

The venue of the hearing was recently shifted from Tamluk, the headquarters of the Purbo Medinipur district, to Chandipur near Nandigram following a demand by the Bhoomi Ucched Pratirodh Committee.