LF meet fails to arrive at a deal on land acquisition

Kolkata, Feb 8: The crucial Left Front Committee meeting to discuss the land acquisition policy and the industrialisation programme ended inconclusively this morning following diverse views of the constituents.

The meeting under the chairmanship of Left Front supremo Biman Basu and attended by front ranking leaders of all the constituents held a detailed discussion on the land acquisition policy and the future of industrialisation.

Expressing concern at the continuing turn of events, specially after the alleged murder of a policeman in a tussle between the administration and the Krishijami Bachao Raksha Committee members at Haldia, the constituents suggested a thorough review of the government policy.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Front chairman Biman Basu reportedly tried to convince the Front members, particularly Forward Bloc General Secretary Ashok Ghosh and his counterpart in the CPI Manjukumar Majumder, the two most vocal opponents of the government's land acquisition policy at Singur and Nandigram, they could not do much and were believed to have agreed to continue with their discussion on the issue itself before continuing with the land acquisition programme.

Even as all the Front constituents unanimously agreed to continue with the industrialisation programme to be at par with other developed states, they suggested the government should make special efforts to identify the barren land for major industries or for the industrial hub.

At this point Land and Land Revenue Minister Abdul Rejjak Mollah tried to explain the government policy in terms of the Land Ceiling Act, but he reportedly failed to convince as most of the other members vouched for a go slow policy.

The meeting also discussed threadbare the government policy on the Land Ceiling Act, which had already been sent to the Select Committee because of the divergent views of the partners.

Meanwhile, the meeting reportedly decided all the Front members would meet each other individually and submit their reports to Front chairman Biman Basu within a week so that the next meeting could take a united stand on the issue.

UNI

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