It’s time for relief politics in Lalgarh. The Trinamool Congress has set up camps for the people who fled their homes when the security forces marched in, the CPM is trying to set up camps but no one wants to be there and the state Government has started distributing foodgrains from the Block Development Office.

The Trinamool Congress, which entered the fray with two Union ministers visiting the affected areas on Sunday, set up five relief camps for the victims of “police atrocities” on Monday, in Pirakata, Salboni, Goaltore, Lalgarh and Netia.

At Pirakata High School where it has set up its biggest relief camp, nearly 800 people — mostly women and children from villages like Jamboni, Dhanghori, Kudia, Melda, Sarboria and others — have taken shelter.

“I came here to save my family and myself,” said 80-year-old Jamuna Singho of Melda village. “It was last Thursday that the policemen raided our village. Everybody ran away as they beat up men and women. They spared me because of my age and I fled the house with my daughter-in-law,” said Jamuna.

She acknowledges that her family has traditionally been a CPM supporter. “But when the People’s Committee (People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities) asked us to join their rally, my son went,” she says.

Maya Das, who has also taken refuge in the camp, claims to have been beaten up by the troops with lathis, leaving wounds all over her body. “They said it is because of us that the Maoists rule here,” said Das, whose husband died a year back. She had been hiding out in the jungle till she came to the camp.

... contd.