No going back on small car project at Singur : Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, Dec 15(UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today asserted that there was no question of going back on the Tatas' small car project at Singur even though Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee was continuing with her hunger strike.

He, however, said while the Government was concerned about the health of Ms Banerjee, it would not force her to withdraw the indefinite fasting.

''She wants us to roll back the project from Singur. But if we do so, the people of Bengal will not forgive us. Under no circumstances can we back out from the project, nor will there be any change in the plan. The factory is being set up on the basis of the people's verdict'' he told mediapersons.

His comments coincided an identical assertion by Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant, who said the company was committed to Singur and its development and well being of the people.

In an interview to a Bengali news channel, Mr Ravi Kant made it clear that the Tata Motors would not back out of the project and was committed to the schedule for the first small car to roll out by mid 2008.

Alleging that misinformation was being presented among the people on acquisition of agricultural land, Mr Bhattacharjee said he had presented all facts relating to Singur to former Prime Minister V P Singh during a meeting this morning and convinced him about the Government's policy.

''I made Mr V P Singh understand our agricultural and industrial policy and also the compensation and rehabilitation package for the farmers whose land had been acquired. I showed him related documents and the white paper on Singur my Government had presented in the Assembly besides apprising how many people had willingly given consent to hand over the land and what the Government would do for 1300 unrecorded bargadars,'' he said.

During the one-hour meeting, the Chief Minister told Mr.Singh that distorted facts and wrong information were being presented to political leaders and a section of intelligentsia on the Singur issue which kicked up an uproar among the opposition and prompted social activists like Medha Patkar to join a movement.

Earlier in the day, veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu also said that Mr.Singh had been fed 'wrong information' on Singur by some quarters and the Chief Minister would present the true picture.

In reply to a question of Mr Singh, Mr Bhattacharjee said the Government had very much kept open doors for talks with those opposing the project and it was also in constant touch with the local farmers through officials on any matters they wanted to know.

The Chief Minister also told Mr Singh that he had made repeated requests to the Trinamool leader to call off her hunger strike, all of which failed.

Last week Ms Banerjee spurned the request of the Chief Minister to stop fasting and sit for dialogues with the Government on issues relating to rehabilitation of the farmers whose land had been acquired for the project. She made it a point that talks could be held only after the Government stopped acquisition of land and withdrew prohibitory orders imposed in and around Singur.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Mr Jyoti Basu, BJP President Rajnath Singh and Left Front Chairman Biman Basu had also made unsuccessful attempts to make Ms Banerjee to withdraw the hunger strike.

In reply to a question of reporters how long shall the Government allow Ms Banerjee to continue with her unrelenting hunger strike, Mr Bhattacharjee said, ''We shall never use force on her to call off fasting.'' After meeting the Chief Minister, Mr Singh himself met Ms Banerjee at her dharna Manch and tried to dissuade her from continuing the hunger strike. However, turning down his request, the Trinamool leader said she was on the right track and the Government should soften its stand first for beaking the impasse.

Later in the day Mr Singh also met Mr Jyoti Basu at his residence in Salt Lake area and discussed politics and Singur for about half-an-hour.

UNI KDG BA SB KN2130