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Rediff.com  » Business » Mamata to meet Sonia on Tuesday: Singur issue

Mamata to meet Sonia on Tuesday: Singur issue

Source: PTI
September 29, 2008 17:17 IST
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Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday seeking Central intervention for the implementation of the September 7 agreement between her party and the West Bengal government on the Singur land issue.

Banerjee told reporters she would submit all papers to the UPA chairperson on the agreement that provides for return of maximum land from within the Tata Motors car project site at Singur to "unwilling" land-losers, signed in the presence of governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at Raj Bhavan on September 7.

"We have been demanding implementation of the agreement, but the government is not doing it. The government has lost credibility," she said.

Banerjee said that she would also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after he returned from abroad and the president on the Singur issue.

"We will also meet leaders of other political parties in the country," she said.

She also ruled out attending an all-party meeting as suggested by WBPCC president P R Dasmunshi and said nothing short of the implementation of the agreement would be acceptable to her party.

Banerjee said that some "agents of the CPI-M" were trying to mislead the people by speaking about all an party meeting on Singur issue. "We will identify those agents," she said.

"The agreement has to be implemented in toto, there is nothing in between," she asserted.

She, however, said her party would attend such a meeting if it was convened to discuss the technicalities of the agreement and not to discuss any package. "We are not for any package," she said.

The Trinamool Congress chief said that the agreement mentioned that maximum land should be returned to "unwilling" farmers from inside the project area and rest from outside.

"We will go to any extent to get the agreement implemented. We are ready to sacrifice our lives," she said.

She alleged that the state government was trying to promulgate prohibitory orders in Singur during the Puja festival.

"It will be counterproductive, if the government resorts to such a measure," she said.

New land acquisition law needed: CPI(M)

The impasse prevailing over the Tata motor's small car manufacturing plant in Singur could have been avoided if a new land acquisition law would have been put in place, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said on Monday.

The existing land acquisition law dates back to 1894 and his party has been fighting for an all India law on land acquisition for the last four years, Yechury said during an interactive session with the members of the Merchant Chamber of Commerce.

"If there had been one law, the problems would not have surfaced," Yechury said referring to the controversy at Singur and Raigad.

The CPI(M) leader, however, hoped that the issue will be resolved soon through discussions.

"Most likely there will be an all party meeting and I hope some solution would come. And, if not, the government will have to take a decision keeping the law of the land in mind," he said.

Yechury said West Bengal has only one per cent fallow land against the national average of 17 per cent and there was no option left with the state government if it wanted industrialisation.

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