Mamata intensifies her movement against farm land acquisition

Kolkata, Dec 9 (UNI) Intensifying her movement over the Singur issue, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today called for mass fasting here tomorrow as her indefinite hunger strike against the acquisition of farm land at Singur for Tata Motors' small car unit entered its sixth day today.

Ms Banerjee also called for a mass assembly at the venue of her hunger strike in the city's Esplanade area on Monday to intensify the ''people's movement '' against the ''adamant'' attitude of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

She stated that any organisation or individual opposed to the government policy of taking over farm land was free to join the mass hunger strike from 1000 to 2000 hrs tomorrow and the assembly on Monday.

''We need to broadbase the movement mobilising the people's opinion,'' she asserted.

Denying that she had rejected the talks offer by the Chief Minister on the whole episode, Ms Banerjee said she had only wanted that the government stop acquiring land and lift prohibitory orders from the area before holding dialogues.

Yesterday in a letter, in reply to the Chief Minister's official invitation for dialogue and the call for withdrawing the hunger strike, Ms Banerjee said, '' I will accept your offer for discussions on Bengal's development if you stop acquiring land at Singur, withdraw prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC clamped in the area and hand over to the Tatas an alternative land. '' Meanwhile, social activist Medha Patekar was today arrested when she along with Naxalites was marching in a procession here to protest yesterday's police ''lathicharge'' on journalists in Hooghly district.

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