Gandhi-Buddha closeted to find door out of Mamata impasse

Kolkata, Dec 21(UNI) West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi today called a meeting with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to find a solution to the impasse over the indefinite hunger strike of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on the Singur issue, after his fresh appeal to the fasting leader was turned down.

The meeting, to be held in the Raj Bhavan, was convened after the Trinamool leader refused to end her 18-day-long fasting even after the Governor and the Chief Minister made separate appeals.

Before talking to the Chief Minister, Mr Gandhi met Trinamool General Secretary Mukul Roy to listen to the party's view and go through documents, claimed to be supporting Ms Banerjee's allegation that the agricultural land for the Tata Motors' small car project had been forcibly taken away from farmers.

Earlier in the day, the Governor himself called on Ms Banerjee at her dharna manch and requested her to call off the hunger strike. He also made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Trinamool leader about the state Government's rehabilitation package for the displaced farmers.

Besides making a written appeal, this was the second time that Mr Gandhi personally called on the Trinamool leader and urged her not to continue the hunger strike.

Few hours later, the Chief Minister also sent a brief letter to Ms.Banerjee with a similar request and urged her to hold talks with him. However, describing the Chief Minister's letter as ''meaningless'', sernior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Ray said there was no question of the party supremo calling off the hunger strike unless the Government gave back the acquired land to the farmers.

''The Chief Minister should have kept in mind the demand our leader has stuck to since the day she started hunger strike. So this letter is meaningless,'' he said.

Ms Banerjee started her hunger strike on December 4 demanding that the land acquired for the Tatas' small car factory be given back to farmers and the project shifted from Singur.

The Chief Minister had made repeated appeals, including twice in writing, to Ms Banerjee to withdraw her hunger strike and proposed dialogues across the table over the issue. But the Trinamool leader remained firm, and demanded that the Government first comply with her demand.

Former Prime Minister Viswanath Pratap Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and BJP President Rajnath Singh were among others who had also made similar appeals to Ms Banerjee.

As part of its agitation programme, the Trinamool Congress declared that party workers would put up road blocks for one hour throughout the state tomorrow as a mark of protest against the Government's 'adamant' attitude.

However, though continuing fasting, the Trinamool supremo had to backtrack yesterday from her resolve to observe a 48-hour statewide bandh following a High Court order and adverse media opinion.

Meanwhile, scribes from different newspaper and television channels joined in a silent march in protest against the manhandling of a reporter and two photographers at the venue of the Trinamool chief's hunger strike yesterday.

Provoked by Ms Banerjee's continuous outburst against the media, a section of Trinamool supporters reportedly abused, heckled and roughed up the woman reporter and two photographers of a Bengali news channel, covering the agitation.

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