Having tasted success in the Lok Sabha and municipal elections following her party's movement against the Left Front government's land acquisition process in Singur and Nandigram, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Saturday launched a renewed campaign on similar lines at Rajarhat in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district.
The plot was acquired nearly a decade ago and is now known as New Town.
Addressing a rally, Ms. Banerjee claimed she had documentary proof that CPI(M) cadres had grabbed land from over 2.5 lakh families in the area and challenged the government to take action against her if she was wrong.
“While thousands of acres were grabbed at a mere Rs. 6,000 an acre, they were sold off at Rs. 40 lakh per acre through agents. We want to know why the government acquired land and what was the public purpose behind the acquisition … if the government is ashamed of itself, let it give back the land to unwilling farmers.”
Ms. Banerjee said her party did not have any problem with the setting up of Information Technology hubs, NGO and art centres on the acquired land but it would not tolerate the State government's attempts at speculation on the land.
“Initially the government claimed that an industrial town will come up here. But where are the industries? Had there been industries, people whose lands were acquired would have got jobs. The government has robbed the people of their land and livelihood to fill its coffers.”
Land-related violence
Ms. Banerjee alleged that 50 persons were killed in the area in land-related violence and the State's Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited was not allowing the Trinamool-led panchayats to function.
She threatened to initiate legal action against the government for giving away over 300 acres to “those close to the CPI(M)” without any notification.
