Industrialisation will go on unabated: Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, Jan 11 (UNI) Asserting that industrialisation was a challenge to him, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said his Government would go ahead with the process despite the Nandigram shadow.

''People want that we move forward, but some opposition parties are determined not to allow industries. Let us see whether they can do it. It is our challenge,'' he said going offensive two days after he announced a go slow on land acquisition in Nandigram following political violence.

He was replying to questions of reporters after the agreement signing ceremony for the country's largest integrated steel plant by the Sajjan Jindal group.

Slamming the opposition for taking a cover of movement to ''discredit'' his government, an aggressive Chief Minister said they were not listening to the logic for industrialisation for ''natural course of development''.

''It was a story told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing,'' he said referring to the opposition uproar over land acquisition.

''But let them oppose. We will go ahead,'' he said.

Chanting his industry mantra, Mr Bhattacharjee said the government would work hard to attract investment, both domestic and foreign and speed up the process.

Observing that no longer could the state stick only to agriculture, he said it was time that industries--both manufacturing and those based on IT and biotechnology--were set up to develop the economy and provide for the unemployed.

However, reiterating that the unrest in Nandigrarm over acquisition of land was because of an ''administrative lapse'', the Chief Minister said the government could not evade the responsibility and it would have to start afresh the whole process.

''In Nandigram it was a great mistake of Haldia Development Authority(HDA), a government agency that created the problem. It was wrong and unjust on the part of it to issue a notification without going for a land survey. We have to start from a clean slate,'' he said.

Observing that HDA should have taken the people of Nandigram into confidence and given more time ''to realise what they are going to get out of a chemical hub,'' Mr Bhattacharjee, however, denied that his government or the party had any role.

''It was simply a mistake of HDA and neither the government nor the party had anything to do with it. A political process was already on,'' he said.

UNI