Left Front ready for state-level peace talks on Nandigram

Kolkata, May 14 (UNI) The peace movement for Nandigram progresed one step further when the ruling Left Front today accepted proposal for an all-party meeting at the state level.

At an urgent Left Front meeting, the CPI(M) agreed to the wishes of the Opposition and the allies - the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI - that a meeting at the state-level should be held first while snubbing them for bypassing the ruling coalition in taking a decision.

''It would have been better to first hold a district-level all-party meeting in East Midnapore, because the problem lies there.

But the Opposition thinks otherwise. Since we want peace at any cost, we have agreed to what they want,'' Front Committee Chairman Biman Basu told reporters.

The date, place and technicalities for the proposed all-party meeting would be finalised following talks between the Front Chairman and veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and top ranking leaders of the Front allies were present at today's meeting.

A Left Front meeting decided on May seven that a district-level meeting should precede broader parleys. Seeking to expedite the process, the Front had also empowered all partners to initiate peace move on their own and talk to the Opposition.

The three smaller partners held a series of meetings among themselves after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee contacted Mr Ghosh a day after requesting him to convene an all-party meet.

Differences within the Front surfaced when the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI went against the earlier decision, holding a similar view as that of the Trinamool and the Congress on the modalities for calling the peace talks.

UNI