Calcutta, May 29: Citu today pledged support for Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s dream project, the chemical hub, and dubbed those opposing it on the ground of displacement of villagers anti-development.

“(Social activist) Medha (Patkar) and others who run foreign-funded NGOs are opposed to development. We are also concerned about farmers and environment. But we want industry for the creation of jobs. Chemical industry has good prospects in Bengal and the hub is a new concept. The state must develop it,’’ Citu president M.K. Pandhe said today.

Despite the setback in Nandigram, where the hub was originally planned, the chief minister is firm on setting it up close to the neighbouring Haldia port and has sought a political consensus on the project through an all-party meeting.

Pandhe said the state government is “open to discussions on all aspects”.

Mamata Banerjee has opposed the project, which invol-ves acquisition of farmland and displacement of villagers.

Jamait-i-Ulema Hind’s Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who was at the forefront of the Nandigram agitation, today vowed to “fight against all special economic zones, including the chemical hub’’.

An outfit formed by Jamait and some Naxalite groups will hold a convention on SEZs in the city on June 2 and June 3. “Medha Patkar and author-activist Arundhati Roy will attend it,” Chowdhury said.

Citu members from other states quizzed their leaders on Nandigram on the third day of the union’s general council meeting at Salt Lake Stadium.

The CPM’s West Midnapore secretary, Dipak Sarkar, who has been in charge of East Midnapore since the violence, tried to explain to the comrades what went wrong in Nandigram.

“The questions he had to answer ranged from those on land acquisition and farmers’ compensation to the alleged police excesses,’’ a state Citu leader said.

New Citu general secretary Mohammad Amin said in a report on the political fallout of Nandigram that “though the chief minister admitted that the firing was a mistake and ought to have been avoided”, it “was not against peaceful villagers, as the case is made out to be’’.

Amin supported the right of employees in information technology to organise unions and resort to strikes and said Citu will not chart a different course in Left-ruled Bengal.

Bengal Citu leaders said they were fighting for infotech employees’ rights, such as minimum wages and provident funds, and pressuring their employers to abide by labour laws.