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MURSIDABAD’SSTARVINGMASSES
 
TARUN KANTI BOSE
Published in
www.hrsolidarity.net/mainfile.php/2007vol17no03
 
http://www.infochangeindia.org/features353.jsp
Y Din, a Finnish Magazine
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CONTENTS1. Murshidabad’s starving hamlet – a close introspection 32. Criminal apathy and political corruption leads to starvation73. A model village where people starve to death104. Pushed to the sanctuary of death 145. Starving to death – begging for life196. BSF kills poor villagers so that smuggling can go on… 227. Filling its coffers from hunger-hit villagers258. Smuggling goes on unabated…279. Where fair is foul, foul is fair…2910. Political gangsterism in connivance with the police32
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MURSHIDABAD’s STARVING HAMLET- A CLOSE INTROSPECTION
alangi, situated 50 km east of the Behrampore, the district headquarters of Murshidabad, which lies along the western bank of River Padma thatdivides India and Bangladesh. Predominantly, a Muslim and
dalit 
area,was earmarked for East Pakistan until the British colonial rulers changed thepartition plan at the last minute, in 1947. The present ‘Jalangi’ is a resettlementtown as the River Padma has swallowed up the old Jalangi, which lies beneaththe water’s surface.
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Even as far back as a decade, the India-Bangladesh border was a long way fromthe village to the extent of 4-5 kilometre and the River Padma was the dividingline between the two countries. The distance has now been totally reducedpenetrating the Indian Territory so much, that several other villages are in danger of being destroyed. All this is due to the continuous erosion of the river embankment, which leads to reduction and changing of the river path. Thispersistent erosion has converted all the cultivated land into sand beds and hasdestroyed dwelling houses as well as cattle.To reach Jalangi we had to take a bus from the Esplanade in Kolkata. It tookseven and half-hours from Kolkata to cover 250 kilometres. After reachingJalangi, the next morning we started moving along the coast where the villagershave built huts bearing the names of their villages that were swallowed up by the
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joogang

I am just spellbound on reading these minute details of information.Its a real pity that inspite of ruling this state for more than 3 decades ,CPM has done no good to the people of this state.Innocent people are dying for no reasons. I really feel an alarming stage has come for West Bengal.Something has to happen here.

reply10 / 11 / 2009
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