Mamata: Ready for talks?

Calcutta, June 1: Mamata Banerjee today said she would respond to proposals for discussion on land acquisition for industry if they come from the “government or the Left Front committee”.

“We are not going to accept any proposal from any individual ministers as they are speaking in so many voices on land acquisition. There is a Left Front committee and a cabinet. We shall respond to proposals that have the approval of the front or the state cabinet,” Mamata said after a Trinamul Congress working committee meeting at her Kalighat house.

CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar welcomed Mamata’s proposal. “Instead of doing anything unilaterally, we shall convene all-party meetings to reach a consensus on land acquisition for industry. Everybody has to be taken into confidence.”

The Trinamul chief spoke today while reacting to industries minister Nirupam Sen’s remark in Delhi that the government would look for a “consensus” with the new Opposition-led zilla parishads before going ahead with land acquisition.

“There is a new leadership at the district level in East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas. We will consult them for a consensus before going ahead with the new projects,” the minister had said.

Trinamul sources claimed Mamata had asked the East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas zilla parishad members to co-operate with the government on development projects.

Over a dozen would-be officer bearers of the South 24 Parganas zilla parishad had called on district magistrate Sanghamitra Ghosh last week. “We had successfully run the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for five years, maintaining healthy relations with the government on development. The same will be the case with our new zilla parishads,” a key Trinamul functionary said.

According to him, Mamata’s stand assumes significance because the RSP and the Forward Bloc have also resented the CPM’s “bid to grab farmland” for industry. “Didi wants to assess whether the front partners can reach a consensus on projects sinking their internal differences,” a South 24-Parganas leader said.

PWD minister and RSP leader Kshiti Goswami said Mamata has made it “binding on the CPM to discuss industrial projects at Left Front meetings and in the state cabinet before going ahead” with land acquisition for industry.

“She has acted judiciously,” he added.

The Bloc’s Hafiz Alam Sairani also backed Mamata for demanding a “collective decision” on land acquisition.

“The CPM’s increasing tendency to bypass the front while deciding on land acquisition will now have to change,” he said.