Poisonous gram: call for judicial probe

By Barun Das Gupta

GUWAHATI, AUG. 22 Leaders of nine Left and democratic parties today blamed the State Government for having failed to find out, even two weeks after the tragedy which claimed three lives, how the pesticide- treated gram meant for use as seed came to be sold in the market.

The leaders, who have come back from a fact-finding tour of the affected villages in Barpeta and Kamrup, expressed surprise that the police had not yet been able to trace the source of the gram.

They said that at Bhella, one of the worst-affected villages in Barpeta, they were told the name of the shopkeeper from whom the BDO had purchased 17 kg of pesticide-treated gram. The man said he had purchased it from Barpeta town.

The leaders said the obvious course for the police was to take this man to Barpeta and find out the wholesaler. But the police have not done anything.

While demanding a judicial inquiry into the poisoning, they suspected that a ``big racket'' was operating in the selling of gram meant for supplying as seed to farmers. They alleged some of the suppliers had links with the ruling party (Congress) bigwigs and government officials and that is why the police were trying to hush up the case.

Hundreds of people, many of them school children, fell ill after consuming the poisonous gram on August 9 in Barpeta district. They had been brought to take part in a government- sponsored peace rally.

On August 15, many more fell ill in the adjoining Nalbari district. Reports of similar cases of poisoning have now come in from Rangiya in Kamrup district.eom.

The leaders belonged to the CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, SUCI, RCPI, RSP, Samajvadi Party, Janata Dal (Secular) and UMF.

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Section  : Other States
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