Takers Of Loose Change

Unkept promises

• Mamata had promised to withdraw joint forces. This has not happened.
• There has been no change in people’s lives. Men and women still walk miles for rations.
• Political prisoners are still in jail. The state government has merely set up a committee to review cases.

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vening descends over Lalgarh. It’s nearly two months since Mamata Banerjee came to power, and the police and paramilitary presence is highly visible. This flies against Mamata’s election promise that if she came to power, she would usher in development and withdraw security forces. But, once in power, the Trinamool Congress has realised that such promises are easier made than kept. It needs the joint forces to keep the Maoists in check. In fact, last week after the CM was briefed on the presence of Maoists in Jangalmahal, Mamata said that if the Maoists thought she would be lenient they were sorely mistaken—if they resisted development programmes, they would be dealt with severely. Those who voted for ‘change’ in this region now wonder about its whereabouts. Villagers continue to trudge miles to ration shops and drinking water is still not accessible to many. Sick children aren’t treated as their parents cannot afford to take them to faraway hospitals. They also have no money to buy medicines. Another pre-election promise by Mamata was the speedy release of political prisoners. Suspected to be Maoists, many were picked up by the Left regime. The new government has set up a committee to review the cases of those jailed. But the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), which was formed by Chhatradhar Mahato, who is still in jail, feel that the government is not doing much. The PCAPA, which covertly helped the Trinamool in its two-year long campaign against the Left, feels cheated because it has been kept out of the review committee.

But is it too early to pass judgement? After all, it takes some doing to untangle the mess that the Left government—in power for 34 years—has left in its wake. One feedback Outlook got from Lalgarh and adjoining areas is that Mamata ought to be given more time to change things around. Also, some villagers feel the presence of joint police and central paramilitary forces gives them a sense of security and makes them less vulnerable to attacks. Clearly, these are people who still repose faith in Mamata. Some even say that the joint forces’ attitude towards them have undergone a change, and they are now more civil. The security forces apparently have been instructed not to raid the homes of villagers, but to continue operations against the Maoists in the jungle.

Photoraphs by Saibal Das
Text: Dola Mitra in West Midnapore