Mamata says no to Bhattacharjee's talk offer

Kolkata, Dec 8 (UNI) Continuing her hunger strike, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today refused talk offers by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, urging him to stop acquisition of land at Singur and shift the Tatas' small car project before any truce.

'' I will accept your offer for discussions on Bengal's development if you stop acquiring land at Singur, withdraw prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr P C clamped in the area and hand over to the Tatas an alternative land, '' she said in a letter in reply to the Chief Minister's official invitation for dialogue and the call for withdrawing the five-day-old hunger strike.

This was the third time that the Trinamool leader spurned offers for discussions with the Chief Minister on the Singur issue, though an official invitation from Mr Bhattacharjee came to her only today.

Yesterday, the Chief Minister made a similar appeal through media at the Infocom programme. However, Ms Banerjee demanded that the Chief Minister extend to her an official invitation.

In an apparent shift from her belligerent stand on Mr Bhattacharjee's earlier proposals for talks, the Trinamool leader said she felt there was no enmity between agriculture and industry and personally she was prepared for discussions on the state's development.

Seeking to end the stand-off with the Opposition, the Chief Minister had requested her to stop fasting and talk to him on the Singur issue and the overall industrialisation in West Bengal.

In his letter, the Chief Minister suggested that talks could be held between the two or through representatives of the Government and the Trinamool Congress.

Leading 'Singur Krishi Jami Raksha Committee', a platform of 19 political parties and organisations, Ms Banerjee had been on the indefinite hunger strike Since December four in protest against the acquisition of farm land at Singur and the ''police atrocities on protesting farmers''.

The Trinamool leader managed to have Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar share dais with her to protest against taking over agricultural land for industrial purpose. BJP President Rajanath Singh and NDA leader George Fernandes had also come to express their solidarity with her.

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