Help eludes former CPM duo - Veterans struggle in village named after them

(Left) Lal Somra Oraon; and Jhamela Somra Oraon in Nagrakata. Telegraph pictures

TT, Jalpaiguri, Nov. 25: Two CPM workers who had participated in land movements in the Dooars about five decades ago and helped strengthen the party are living in abject poverty in a Nagrakata village that has been named after them.

Their families have alleged that neither the party nor the state have extended help.

Lal Somra Oraon and Jhamela Somra Oraon had joined the CPM and organised movements under former minister Parimal Mitra. But now, both are struggling to make both ends meet in Laljhamela busty, a hamlet named after them.

Lal, who is 80, finds it tough to arrange one square meal a day. "I am old and cannot work now. I have not received any assistance from the state or the party, for which I have spent months in jail or stayed in forests to escape arrest. Several people who joined the CPM later have become wealthy. But I am still living in my old dilapidated hut."

His wife and son are labourers in Nagrakata.

"We do not get work daily and many times, we have to live with only one meal," said Lal's wife Etowari, around 70-years-old. "We have not received any assistance, whether it is funds for a home or old age pension from the state."

Even today, the octogenarian proudly introduces himself as a " Lal Partyr Kormi" (a CPM worker). "From 1968 to 1970, the CPM was not in power in the state. We had launched a movement in Nagrakata to take over land hoarded by zamindars and distribute it among landless people," Lal Somra Oraon said. "We had to face arrests. We were tortured in custody. Many times, we would escape into the forests to evade arrests. On the tea estates, we worked for years to strengthen the support base of Citu (CPM's trade union) and the party. But there is no one to take care of us now."

Laljhamela busty, 40km from here, is on the land which the former leaders had taken back from the zamindars.

Jhamela is 90. He has a tumour on his tongue and parts of his body were paralysed five years ago. He is unable to talk.

"For the past five years he is living without any proper treatment. Whenever we can, we take him to the block health centre at Nagrakata. No party leader or any official from the panchayat or the block level has taken any initiative for his treatment," Jhamela's daughter Laxmi, a daily labourer said.

His wife Basanti said the family has not got any assistance. "Many junior leaders in the CPM have moved to senior positions. But till date, nobody has turned up to help us. We live on the earnings of our daughter," she said.

Sources said both the former leaders have not renewed their party memberships for the past couple of years.

Nagrakata was a CPM stronghold and even now, the zila parishad is run by the party. But in the past five years several Left leaders have joined the Congress, Trinamul or the Adivasi Vikas Parishad.

Although the Left has been criticising the state and the Centre over the sufferings of workers and their families living in the closed and ailing tea estates of the Dooars, Jalpaiguri district CPM leaders, however, are not ready to accept the charges.

"It is incorrect that the party does not take care of the former leaders. Even a few months back, I met them along with some local leaders," Ziaur Alam, the Jalpaiguri district Citu secretary and a district secretariat member of the CPM, said. "As far as providing assistance is concerned, it is the responsibility of the state and the block administration. Several such people across the state are deprived because of the state's failure," he added.

Alam heads the Joint Forum, a common platform of 24 tea unions that has launched protests and called an industry strike on December 1 to protest the pathetic condition of tea workers and their families in the shut estates of the Duncans' Goenka Group.

Told about the Lal and Jhamela, Amarnath Jha, leader of opposition at Jalpaiguri zilla parishad, said: "I have heard about the Left leaders from my father who was active in politics earlier. It is disappointing that they are not looked after by their party. Being a member of the zilla parishad, I will meet them and put in all efforts to see that all possible assistances are provided to them."