24 August : Launching the Trinamool Congress’ dharna demanding return of the land acquired for Tata’s car project, party chief Mamata Banerjee said the Singur impasse could be peacefully resolved by utilising an alternate low-lying land instead of the present plant site.
"There is a 500 acre low-lying land near the project site where the ancillary units can come up and the government can decide on it. If the government agrees, we will show it to them," Banerjee told a huge gathering near the Tata Motors plant in Singur on Sunday.
The Trinamool-run panchayat bodies would be informed about this land and they would be involved in the process, she said, rejecting West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s proposal on Saturday that the government was ready with a package and wanted talks on it.
"That is an old proposition. That will not solve the problem," the TC chief said. The proposed land was lying with CPI(M)-backed promoters, she claimed.
However, if the land was not used for the vendor park, the party-controlled panchayat would not allow construction of multi-storey buildings there, she warned.
Mamata repeatedly appealed to party workers to peacefully conduct the dharna and said her party did not want the Tatas to leave, but to restrict its small car factory at Singur to 600 acre.
She said that in their letter to her the Tatas had stated that they required 600 acre for the small car project. "Please don’t change your stand every day."
More talks needed to sort out Singur issue: CPI(M)
More talks are needed to sort out the Singur land impasse and as a first step towards resolving it, the number of farmers unwilling to part with their land should be determined, the CPI(M) has said, earlier Ratan Tata had threatened to quit Bengal following violence at the project site.
"There can be more discussions and the number of unwilling farmers determined," CPI(M) politburo member and party’s West Bengal state Committee Biman Bose said in Kolkata on Sunday.
The CPI(M) leader’s comment came shortly after the Trinamool Congress launched its indefinite dharna near the Tata Motors’ small car plant site at Singur demanding return of 400 acre to "unwilling farmers".
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata had earlier threatened to quit West Bengal following violence at the project site over land acquisition for ‘Nano’ project.
Bose said after the initial talks between Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee, there should be exchange of papers and documents to ascertain claims and counter claims.
"The government will place its papers and they (opposition) will give their documents, and, in this manner a solution will be found to the Singur deadlock," Bose said.
About the Trinamool Congress’ agitation Bose said, he had no objection to a democratic and peaceful movement.
The CPI(M)-led ruling Left Front on Saturday had asked the chief minister to continue the dialogue with the Trinamool Congress till a solution was arrived at.
"The chief minister should continue the dialogue. The dialogue should not stop," he had said after a meeting of the nine-party Front. DDINEWS