Date:12/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/12/stories/2007111259791400.htm

National

Mamata protests outside police headquarters

Special Correspondent

100 arrested, Medha meets Governor

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s plans to visit Nandigram on Sunday were aborted.

However, she continued her journey riding pillion on a motorcycle to Tamluk where she, her associates and supporters demonstrated outside the district police headquarters in protest against the alleged role of the police in Nandigram.

There were stray incidents of violence involving activists of the Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh (Resistance against Land Eviction) Committee, (BUPC) and CPI(M) supporters in certain parts of the Nandigram area on Sunday even as the first batch of Central Reserve Police Force personnel to be deployed there arrived at Tamluk, the district headquarters.

Meanwhile, more than 100 people, including intellectuals and those from the world of art, theatre and cinema, protesting against the State government’s role in Nandigram were detained from different parts of the city, including from outside the main venue of the 13th Kolkata Film Festival, on Sunday. They were later released.

Accompanied by her associates, social activist Medha Patkar, who in the evening called off her hunger strike, visited Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at the Raj Bhavan.

Ms. Patkar reportedly apprised the Governor of the present situation in Nandigram, where those wanting to reach relief to the victims of the recent violence were still being prevented from entering the area.

She plans to visit Nandigram on Monday.