Opposition fireworks likely in Bengal Assembly

Kolkata, Mar 5 (UNI) The contentious issues of Singur and Nandigram and the ongoing jute mill strike are likely to provide fodder to the opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress, set to kick up a ruckus in the Budget Session of the West Bengal Assembly, beginning on March eight.

Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim today said the budget would be placed on March 16 and the session was likely to continue till the first week of April.

Asserting that the party would make full use of the session to corner the Government, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Manas Bhunia said the plight of tea garden workers and the killing of a party supporter by a police officer in Katwa would be also taken up.

"Our members will be vociferous in taking up all these issues and press the Government for answer. We will do whatever possible within the democratic set up," he told reporters.

Alleging that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was acting like a "hypocrete", Mr Bhunia said despite his overt appeal to restore peace, CPI(M) supporters were allegedly mounting attacks on the people of Nandigram.

"The Chief Minister is directly extending support to these forces," he alleged.

Though the Chief Minister had promised to publish a white paper on land acquisition in Singur, nothing had been done so far, he said.

Alleging that the Government was doing nothing to find a solution to the crisis in the state's jute industry, Mr.Bhunia also demanded that a tripartite meeting be convened to end the two-month long jute mill strike.

UNI