Mamata makes fresh demand for Art 356 in WB

Kolkata, Mar 13: Making a fresh demand for dismissal of the WestBengal Government for grabbing the land of the minority people,Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today called for a nationalagricultural policy and amendment to the century old land acquisitionact to safeguard the interest of farmers.

''The UPA Government at the Centre must intervene into theforcible acquisition of agricultural land in the state. It should takerecourse to the provision of Article 356 to save the people of theminority community, whose lands are being taken, and the village women,who are being subjected to torture by the Left Government,'' she toldreporters today.

Amid reports of fresh trouble in Nandigram, Ms Banerjee told ahurriedly convened press conference that she would meet President A P JAbdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week to take up theissue.

''I ended my hunger strike at the President's and the PrimeMinister's request. Both of them said the issue of farmers' interestwould be addressed. I shall now seek their intervention. I will alsourge them to visit West Bengal,'' she said.

The Trinamool leader asserted that the Centre should formulate a''comprehensive'' agricultural policy for proper use of agriculturalland. ''If necessary, the 1894 Act for Acquisition of Land should alsobe amended to provide adequate safeguard to farmers stipulating which,land can be taken over and what should be the amount,'' she said.

Ms Banerjee lauded the role of the Prime Minister in taking steps to redress the plight of farmers in Maharashtra.

Calling Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a ''criminal'', theTrinamool supremo alleged that he was leading the drive forindiscriminate land acquisition to serve the interest of bigindustrialists. '' The way things are being done would causeenvironmental imbalance and spell a danger to the state,'' she said.

She alleged that though her party was continuing a peacefulmovement against the acquisition of agricultural land, the stateGovernment was not paying any heed to it.

Ms Banerjee, who had accused Tata of being a close ally of theCPI(M), challenged the Chief Minister yesterday to hold a referendum onland acquisition in the state.

UNI

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