Mamata Banerjee Redeems Pledge, But Bringing Industry Back Will Be Tough      

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today (15 September) invited the Tatas to set up an automobile hub in the state as she redeemed a pledge made years back by returning 9,117 land records to farmers and compensating 800 from whom land had been forcibly taken for the group’s Nano project in Hooghly district’s Singur.

But despite all that she claimed and promised to the people of Singur, bringing industry back to Bengal will be tough, if not impossible, for her.

It was the same spot of the Durgapur Expressway where Banerjee had held a 16-day sit-in protest in 2008 demanding 400 acres out of the total 997.11 acres acquired for the Tata Motors’ Nano project be returned to the “unwilling farmers”.

Refering to the 31 August Supreme Court verdict, which had struck down the land acquisition made by the erstwhile Left Front government and ordered the land be returned to the cultivators, Banerjee said though the apex judiciary had given 10 weeks to complete the land survey, her government will complete the process in seven-eight weeks.

She declared that from next year, September 14 would be celebrated as “Singur Divas” and a Singur Memorial would come up in memory of martyrs of the movement.

Reaching out to the Tatas again, Banerjee suggested the group set up an automobile hub over 1,000 acres in Goaltore of West Midnapore district and gave them a month’s time to think over the proposal.

“We work with lot of companies of their Group. Tomorrow we will sign a treaty with a Tata group company for setting up an Industrial Training Institute,” she said.

Urging the Tatas to accept “sportingly” the Supreme Court verdict, Banerjee said: “I am giving you a month’s time, please think over. We have 1,000 acres of land with us at Goaltore. Will you set up an industry?

With inputs from IANS.