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Pranab gifts Maidan to rally brigadeBy Rajesh Kumar, Section News
KOLKATA: If the Red brigade shocked the city by wresting a 'yes' from the army to hold a rally on the Maidan, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday dealt the coup de grace on efforts to save Kolkata's lungs by declaring that the military would no longer stop political rallies on the green.
The only clause: the organisers will have to cough up a caution money. For that, the defence minister said, the military would even clean up the mess left behind on the Maidan. "All political parties will be allowed to hold rallies at the Maidan. But they will be required to deposit a caution money. If the ground is not cleared of litter after the meeting, we will do it,"Mukherjee said at a political meeting in Murshidabad. Though Mukherjee said the amount hadn't been fixed yet, the State Coordination Committee, which has a rally scheduled on the Brigade grounds on Wednesday, received a defence ministry letter asking for a refundable deposit of Rs 20,000. The estate officer's letter to SCC general secretary Jyoti Prasad Basu also stated that the rally organisers would have to shell out a 'licence fee' of Rs 250 per day for using the Maidan....
The defence minister's statement left the green brigade shocked. Environment activist Subhas Datta, who had moved a public interest litigation on the Maidan that sparked a debate on how the expanse of green could be preserved best, seethed at the minister's "lack of responsibility"in issuing such a statement.
"It's a betrayal of people's trust. Mukherjee has no right to mortgage the Maidan to any party. Can the finance minister be allowed to put India on the block at the World Bank?"he fumed. Datta is preparing to move Calcutta High Court by mid-January for a clearer directive on the army's status as the sole guardian and protector of the Maidan. "A clarification is required on whether the local military authority is the 'owner' the Maidan or the custodian." In the last order, the high court green Bench had stated that no function or event could be held at the Maidan without the army's approval. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1347448,curpg-2.cms
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