WB: CM dismisses plan to acquire land at Deganga

Kolkata, Mar 24: Amid the charged up situation following the Nandigram incident, Chief Minister Buddhedeb Bhattacharjee today ruled out any government plan to acquire land at Deganga in North 24 Parganas district, the scene of recent violence.

" Neither had the government any proposal to acquire land for industry at Deganga nor does it have any, " he said in a statement while participating in a CPI (M) State Committee meeting.

Deganga hogged the limelight last week when the locals went on a rampage, attacking police and torching vehicles following reports of acquisition of land for setting up industry.

However, blaming an official for deliberately issuing provocative notification at Deganga, the Chief Minister said in a statement that he had directed the Land Revenue department to take punitive action against the guilty official.

The State Committee meeting was called to discuss the political fallout and the party's course of action in the wake of the March 14 police firing in Nandigram.

Mr Bhattacharjee's statement came a few days after the East Midnapore administration issued a notification to defuse the volatile situation, stating that no land would be acquired in Nandigram.

According to official reports, at least 14 people were killed and 71 injured as police opened fiire to quell a violent mob.

However, the Trinamool Congress-led Opposition forces carrying out a movement against land acquisition alleged that the CPI (M) cadres joined police in killing the villagers and the actual figure of the casualty was much higher.

Seeking to keep the momentum of Opposition movement on the issue of Nandigram, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced yesterday that she would visit Deganga shortly to mobilise the people's opinion against the government's industrial policies.

She had also declared that the movement would continue till the Left Front government returned all the agricultural land, including that in Singur, to the owners and promised not to use force in its drive for industrialisation.

UNI

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