Emeute de la faim à Burdwan বর্ধমান (West Bengal) – août 2010

Ration riot breaks out in Burdwan

TNN

Aug 31, 2010

MEMARI, BURDWAN: Ration riots returned to Bengal after three years on Monday. Villagers of Kolemollickapur, Memari, torched the house of ration dealer Swapan Mondal, wrecked the panchayat office, gheraoed nine food corporation officials and fought pitched battles with police for seven hours demanding the arrest of ‘corrupt’ ration dealers.

The villagers attacked policemen with arrows, spears, stones and bricks. It took waves of lathi-charges and tear-gas shelling by the RAF to break up the attack. The situation is still tense. Tuesday could see more violence, fear locals. In 2007, ration riots had scorched six districts in Bengal.

Burdwan is in the grip of a severe drought and has already seen two farmer suicides due to starvation and debt.

A week ago villagers met the BDO and informed him that they were not getting rations. « On Friday, when officials visited the village, the locals demanded that the dealer’s licence be suspended. The team said they would have to see the documents but they were not allowed to. A mob of 300 gheraoed them until they were freed by police, » said Burdwan DM Onkar Singh Meena.

« People of four villages have not been getting ration on BPL and APL cards since the first week of August. Police promised to bring the FCI officials only when we gheraoed the road last week. When they came, villagers locked them in a school demanding the arrest of the ration dealer, » said Binod Mondal, a local.

Villagers are still blocking the Memari-Maldanga Road demanding the arrest of a ration dealer. Police have arrested six persons for Monday’s violence.

Ration dealer Swapan Mondal, whose house was torched by a mob on Monday, has been absconding for the past few days. Burdwan SDO(N) Arindam Neogi has arrived at Memari police station to take stock of the situation.

A police officer of Memari said that they showed a lot of patience and tried to settle the dispute amicably. « The food supply officers told them that they will lodge an FIR after probing the allegations against the dealer but the villagers wanted him arrested outright, » he said. Some policemen were injured in the attack.

Trinamool Congress leader Ismile Seikh alleged that police beat up innocent men and women. « The situation will worsen if police raids continue in the night, » he warned.

Informations

Bardhaman (also Barddhaman; Bengali: বর্ধমান Bôrdhoman), is a city of West Bengal state in eastern India. It is the headquarters of Bardhaman District. Bardhaman has been a district capital since the time of Mughals. Later on it became a district headquarters of British India. Burdwan is an alternative name for the city, which remains in use since the British period.