West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee asks ministers to protest outside Amartya Sen’s house against eviction notice

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked her ministers to launch a protest sit-in outside Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's residence in Birbhum district to protest the eviction notice of Vishva-Bharati, an official said.

During the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Banerjee asked MSME minister Chandranath Sinha, a local MLA, to lead the protest, which will be joined by ministers Bratya Basu and Firhad Hakim.  Banerjee urged the ministers not to move from the protest site even if central university authorities send bulldozers to seize the land.

According to media reports, Banerjee directed the ministers to involve the Bauls and other folk artists of the district in the demonstration and organize various cultural programs at the protest site. Singer Kabir Suman and painter Subhaprasanna have also been summoned to perform at the protest scheduled for May 6 and 7, the official said. “The CM has advised them not to move an inch even if Visva-Bharati sends bulldozers to seize it,” he said. Banerjee had said last week that she would initiate talks in Santiniketan over the matter.

Visva-Bharati University had sent an eviction notice to Amartya Sen on April 19, asking him to vacate 13 decimal places of his residence's 1.38 acres of land by May 6. The university claimed that Sen owns 1.38 acres of land in the Santiniketan campus, which is more than his legal claim of 1.25 acres.

The economist had earlier claimed that most of the land he holds in the Santiniketan campus was bought from the market by his father, while he took some other land on lease. Founded in 1921 by Rabindranath Tagore, Visva-Bharati is West Bengal's only central university and has Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chancellor. Banerjee handed over the land-related documents to Sen during a visit to his residence in January when the Nobel laureate was in Santiniketan.

Earlier on Tuesday, the state cabinet gave its approval to build a 'skill development city' on 77.33 acres of land in Rajarhat. Under the initiative of private organizations, state-of-the-art training centers will be built, the official said. According to him, at the meeting, the chairperson expressed displeasure at the "systematic postponement" of new appointments even after approval by the cabinet. The appointments should be finalized as soon as possible, Banerjee said and suggested the formation of an expert committee to make the Public Service Commission more active.