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“Let agriculture and industry co-exist”

Marcus Dam

Mamata Bannerjee

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she would go ahead with her agitation from August 24 demanding that 400 acres of land (out of 997 acres) allegedly acquired without the consent of owners for the Tata Motors project at Singur be given back to them.

“We are going for a peaceful movement — no doubt about it. But it is the State government’s duty to ensure a peaceful movement,” she told journalists here.

Reiterating that 600 acres was sufficient for setting up the automobile plant, she said: “Mr. Tata, are you listening to me? Land [at Singur] has been forcibly acquired. Please accept the advice of the people of the area and return the 400 acres to the farmers. We are pleading for both industry and agriculture so that people in industry and agriculture can smile.”

“There is still a solution [to the stalemate]. We have a one-point programme: let there be agriculture as well as industry.”

Replying to questions, shortly after Mr. Tata expressed his anxiety over the developments related to the Singur project, Ms. Banerjee wondered why the Tata Group was receiving deferential treatment from the State government.

“Whatever [benefits] have been given to the Tatas should be given to other industrialists. There are so many industrialists, why just one?”

On Mr. Tata’s remark that it would be wrong to presume that Tata Motors would not move from Singur because it had already invested Rs. 1,500 crore in the project, the Trinamool chief said: “Rs. 1,500 crore is nothing to you. You have lakhs of crores [of rupees]. Why have you not invested thousands and thousands of crores to Bengal earlier?”

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