Kolkata (PTI): Asserting that the fight for 'ma-mati-manush' (mother, land and people) will catalyse change in West Bengal, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday night claimed the journey was irreversible.

"Any attempt to snatch away the freedom of 'ma-mati-manush' will never succeed. Our motherland and its people will always triumph over those evil forces," Ms. Banerjee thundered at a rally on the eve of Independence day.

Ms. Banerjee's comments came in the wake of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee calling on CPI(M) members, stung by the series of dismal performances in past elections, to return to the people who were "misled", at a meeting to condole the death of state Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty.

Mr. Bhattacharjee had also on August 5 ridiculed the much vaunted 'ma-mati-manush' Trinamool slogan, coined by Ms. Banerjee after the Singur and Nandigram episodes from the name of a folk theatre. "Solution to problems cannot be found through Ma, Mati, Manush", the Marxist leader had stated.

Expressing dismay over healthcare infrastructure in West Bengal, the Union minister said she had asked the Centre to set up camps in the state to deal with swine flu.

"If different labs throw up varying blood test results for ailments it causes confusion. There should be a standardisation," Ms. Banerjee quipped in this context.

Turning to independence, Ms. Banerjee rued people were yet to get economic freedom over six decades after independence.

Exhorting people to avail the benefits of democracy, Ms. Banerjee said democracy envisaged right to humanity, right to fight and set off one's journey for new life.

Ms. Banerjee, who was addressing the meeting at Behala which was part of her Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency, felicitated former Olympian and soccer veteran Samar Banerjee, better known as Badru in club circles.