Saturday 17 May 2014

Bengal

Junglemahal shows Mamata its gratitude


  • The Statesman
  • 17 May 2014
biswabrata goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Midnapore, 16 May
The tribal-dominated Jhargram parliamentary constituency which was once the hotbed of Maoist insurgency, voted the most for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s candidate, Ms Uma Soren, expressing their ‘love'  for her for maintaining peace in the forested land.
As a result, Ms Soren defeated her close contender, Dr Pulin Bihari Baske, a CPI-M candidate with a huge margin of more than 3 lakh votes.
A no-industry zone, this constituency has witnessed years of violence triggered by Maoists. In 2008, Junglemahal attracted nation-wide attention because of the killings and encounters between Maoists and security force personnel. For nearly three years since then, the region has been on the boil. But the turning point came with the death of Maoist leader Kishenji in November 2011. Junglemahal has seen no incidents of murder or abduction by Maoists in the last two years.
Restoration of peace in Junglemahal had raised expectations of Trinamul Congress that the party might be able to improve upon its tally of the Junglemahal seats in this election.
After the change of power in the state, Miss Banerjee had taken numerous steps for the development of the tribal lands and uplift of the tribal populace. She brought all people living in Junglemahal under the BPL category and introduced the scheme through which all communities in Junglemahal will get rice at Rs 2 per kg every week. Today, with peace restored, life is back to normal in this region. There is no fear of violence or of police raids or bandhs.
As per the promises made by Miss Banerjee, colleges, schools and community halls are coming up. Ponds are being dug under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
A Rs 60 crore bridge is being built from Lalgarh to Aamkola.
The state government has also employed more than 10,000 youths from the region in the police department. This has obviously made an impact among the tribal people who came out in large numbers during the polling day and voted for Mamata Banerjee’s candidate.

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