Nandigram, May 11: The Trinamul Congress and the Congress today attended an all-party peace meeting in Nandigram after having boycotted eight of them in a row.

East Midnapore district magistrate Anup Agarwal chaired the meeting, where the Opposition and the CPM agreed to convene gram sansad meetings in every panchayat area to identify and undertake development projects.

“Meetings will now be held at the panchayat level to identify areas where development work is required. There will be no dearth of funds,” the DM said.

Panchayat chiefs, their deputies and leaders of Opposition in the rural bodies of Nandigram and zilla parishad chief Niranjan Shi attended the block office meeting that went on for four hours from 11.30 am.

The CPM chiefs of Sonachura and Kalicharanpur, however, were not there. Lakshman Mondal and Samerun Bibi had fled home during the violence. “The Sonachura panchayat office was gutted and the doors and windows of the Kalicharanpur office have been looted,” said Agarwal.

“We’ll co-operate with the administration in the implementation of the development projects,” said Bakuldeb Das, the Trinamul leader of the Sonachura panchayat. His Kalicharanpur counterpart Monaranjan Manna said the panchayats should repair roads and police should not be allowed to step in.

The DM assured the Opposition that all decisions would be taken in consultation with the Opposition. “Mobile medical teams would visit each village every fortnight,” he added.