Congress delegation to meet PM tonight at Raj Bhavan

Kolkata, Dec 23 (UNI) The West Bengal Congress will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Raj Bhavan tonight and urge him for forming a land commission in the state.

''We will discuss with the Prime Minister the Singur land acquisition issue and also impress upon him for forming a land commission in the state,'' PCC working president Pradip Bhattacharjee told newspersons after the party's working committee meeting here.

He said, ''There is an estimated 37 lakh hectares of non-crop arid land in the state and the prerogative of the government is to identify those land by forming the landmap for industry. The ruling Left Front has no knowledge about the land character in the state. '' The government should indentify barren land and then initiate direct talk with the farmers before handing it over to the industrialists for a peaceful industry-friendly environment,'' Mr Bhattacharjee said.

''We are not against industrialisation, but it should be in non-crop land. The party is not opposed to the Jindal Group's integrated steel plant at Salboni in West Midnapore but against the takeover of farming land at Singur for Tata's small car project and at Nandigarm in West Midnapore for setting up nuclear reactor,'' he added.

The party also urged Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to end her hunger strike, which entered the 20th day today and appealed to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for having direct talk with her without sending letter, he stated.

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