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| Land deal likely root cause |
| Rajat Roy / Kolkata Aug 25, 2009, 13:45 IST |
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land deal where the state government has got itself involved is now threatening to come to the fore after yesterday's violence and arson at Vedic Village, a resort at Rajarhat, near Kolkata. One person died of bullet injury and 15 others were injured last evening when an armed mob attacked and set the resort on fire.
Today, the home secretary Ardhendu Sen tried to put the entire blame on Gaffar Molla, a local land mafia, and his goons for the violence. But the government's version of the incident got a jolt as a cache of weapons were discovered from one of the stores in the resort's complex.
One person has already been arrested in connection with the weapons. Also, several eyewitness accounts of the yesterday's incident concurred that the trouble started off once Gaffar and his goons hurled a few bombs at the nearby playground where his team lost the match in a local football tournament.
Chased by the angry mob Gaffar and his men took shelter inside the resort. Then the mob forcibly entered the resort and set it on fire, destroying almost 70% of the properties, built on a 140 acre land. Though the authorities of Vedic Village Resorts, a unit of Sanjeevani Projects Pvt Ltd, vehemently denied any link with the Gaffar Molla, the villagers insisted that he was a land shark and close to the resort authorities.
Incidentally, last year the state government had entered into a deal with the Vedic Village Resorts, thereby giving it the right to acquire further 1,200 acres of fertile land from its adjacent areas. Of the 1,200 acres thus acquired the state government and the Vedic Village Resorts would take 600 acres each.
While the state government has plan for developing it for some proposed IT SEZ to be set up by some private enterprises like Infosys and Wipro, it would also be responsible for providing infrastructural developments to the entire land including that belonging to the Vedic Village Resorts. According to the farmers, the role of Gaffar Molla becomes important in this context, as he was often seen to be pressurising the villagers to part with their land.
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