Medha, Arundhati out to stall Bengal's development: Basu

Kolkata, Dec 11 (UNI) Criticising social activists Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy for trying to stall the development of West Bengal, CPI(M) State Secretary Biman Basu today alleged that a section of intellectuals was out to mislead and confuse people over the Singur issue.

'' There are some intellectuals who claim to be having no truck with politics. But they get foreign funds to block the development as they are doing now by trying to confuse the people on the Singur issue, '' Mr Basu said in an obvious reference to both the activists while addressing a rally of the Students Federation of India (SFI), a frontal wing of the CPI(M).

Joining the force against setting up the small car factory on the agricultural land, Ms Patkar recently asserted that she would take up the issue at the national level.

Alleging that the Left Front government was ''falsifying'' facts, she claimed a ''Narmada-like situation'' was prevailing in Singur with people having a false conception that the government had forcibly acquired the land from farmers for the proposed project.

Booker Prize winner novelist Arundhati Roy was also one among those, who recently demonstrated in front of the CPI(M) Headquarters in Delhi to highlight the Singur issue.

''Without hindering the State's developmental process these intellectuals could have tried to bargain for the compensation and rehabilitation packages of the people, whose land had been taken,'' Mr Basu, who is also a CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and the Left Front Committee Chairman, said.

Rejecting the allegation that the acquisition of farm land for the industry would reduce the food production in the State, Mr Basu claimed the State government had initiated steps to increase the production of foodgrains with the help of modern technology, high-yielding seeds and high-quality manure.

''The State is already producing much more foodgrains with a land area which is far less than many other states. We are self-sufficient in foodgrains and we shall remain so,'' he claimed.

Ridiculing Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee for going ahead with the hunger strike, the CPI(M) leader said, '' She is behaving like a child without any logic.'' While the Opposition was crying foul over the acquisition of farm land at Singur, Mr Basu claimed only 997.11 acres had been taken for the project out of a total area of more than 3,000 acres.

He claimed as a counter to the Opposition campaign, the farmers, who had voluntarily given away their land for the project, would come down to the city tomorrow to speak to the people the ''truth''.

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