The Hindu : National : Mamata rejects Buddhadeb plea

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Mamata rejects Buddhadeb plea

Special Correspondent

"Agreeable to discussion if land acquisition stops, ban orders are withdrawn"

PHOTO: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on the fifth day of her hunger strike in Kolkata on Friday, in protest against the acquisition of farmland by the West Bengal Government in Singur.

KOLKATA : A written appeal by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee failed to persuade Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to call off her hunger strike, which entered the fifth day on Friday.

The strike is in protest against the alleged forcible acquisition of farmland for the proposed automobile plant at Singur in the State's Hooghly district.

In reply to a letter from Mr. Bhattacharjee, appealing to her to withdraw her strike and sit for talks on the proposed project and the State's industrialisation plans, Ms. Banerjee said she was agreeable to discussions, provided the land acquisition process was discontinued and prohibitory orders in force in the area withdrawn.

Ms. Banerjee's reply made no reference to the Chief Minister's request to call off her strike.

After repeated appeals over the past few days, the Chief Minister sent Ms. Banerjee the letter which said he was prepared to sit for talks even with her representative if she was not in a position to attend.

Her hunger-strike was "a matter of anxiety for all and it is my fervent appeal that you withdraw [it]," Mr. Bhattacharjee said in the letter delivered to Ms Banerjee at the site of her protest.

Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and chairman of the Left Front Committee Biman Bose too have, over the past few days, made similar appeals to Ms. Banerjee. Mr. Gandhi even visited her on Wednesday night to persuade her to call off thestrike.

"I am fervently appealing to you to stop the acquisition of farmland and consider shifting the project to an alternative site on humane grounds," Ms Banerjee said in her reply. "We are willing to cooperate with the State Government on matters of development, but the Government should stop the acquisition of farmland," she wrote.

Her latter was handed over to the Chief Minister's secretariat by senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy. Mr. Bhattacharjee left the city for New Delhi later in the day to attend a meeting of the National Development Council.

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