Land row erupts off EM bypass, RAF deployed

KOLKATA: A row over land, vested with the government but used by local residents for agriculture since the 1950s, flared up off the EM Bypass on Wednesday morning, forcing the administration to deploy police and RAF. The forces were later withdrawn in the face of spirited fightback by the encroachers. BLRO (block land records office) officials claimed the land inquestion - approximately 325 bighas -at Hossainpur near Ruby Hospital belongs to the state government. The site, only 500 metres from the Anandapur police station, is used mostly for paddy cultivation and pisciculture.The officials, accompanied by cops, visited the site at Ward No.108 around 9am on Wednesday. The locals protested vehemently , claiming that they won't let anyone enter their land without permission and that they had the license to farm and fish there. “Around 500 families depend on farming and fishing here. Not only that, this land is also home to approximately 300 of them,“ said Sattik Malik, a fisherman.“This is not the first day , these officials came here last week too,“ said Biswajit Kumar, a local. They said they were going to widen the road, he claimed.Mayor Sovan Chatterjee later said, “The matter should be solved through dialogue and not by force.“ Local councilor Shyamal Banerjee has been asked to talk to the locals and drive home the point that land will not be taken away , it is only being measured. The locals claim this is not the first time they are facing this. The land was previously a bheri which dried up after the connecting canal was blocked by a housing project.“Why should we have to put up a deputation? Why won't the councillor take care of us,“ asked Sriram Hazra, a fisherman.“The policemen rutally pushed aside the women who went to protest. Some of them even fell down in the muck,“ Hazra alleged.Additional OC at Anandapur PS Suman Kumar Dey denied the claim. “No one was pushed or hurt intentionally . They came to protest, we resisted. The road is sloping so people tripped. Even some of our officer fell down,“ Dey said.“In 1976, the government had granted us permission to farm on this land, but our forefathers have been farming and fishing here since the 1950s,“ said Kartik Naskar whose family still farms on this land.