Package a passage deal for Tatas : Mamata

Kolkata, June 19 (UNI) Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today came down heavily on the Left Front government's package for the Singur farmers, terming it a ''passage deal'' for the Tatas.

Talking to mediapersons here, Ms Banerjee alleged that the state goverment was misleading the farmers through this package and deliberately harassing the peasants for acquiring farm lands.

She charged the ruling Front with ''intimidating'' the Opposition and alleged that state-sponsored terrorism was going on in West Bengal.

Demanding that the state government had lost all moral right to continue in the saddle, Ms Banerjee said, the UPA government at the Centre should not remain a mute spectator as the law and order situation in the state had nosedived like never before and apprehended that the ongoing disturbance might drift beyond the state too.

''The peasants have been fighting to get back their lands at Singur, but police along with the CPI(M) cadres are creating problem and harassing them. The peasants are the citizens of this country and have every right to agitate,'' she said.

The Trinamool leader averred that the government had no right to ''muzzle their voices as it was tantamount to violation of laws''.

The Krishi Jami Raksha Committee would observe ''Kalanka mochan'' day on June 21, the day the Left Front completes its 30th year in the saddle.

Vouching for IISCO modernisation programme, she alleged that Rs 13 lakh per acre was promised to the farmers, but only Rs 4,86,000 per acre had been given to them, and accused the government of ''pocketing cut money''.

Ms Banerjee also expressed her solidarity with the agitating farmers at Purushottampur in Asansol stating that the Krishijami Raksha Committee members would proceed there tomorrow to take stock of the situation. She also charged the state government with closing down the tea gardens and promoting real estate business instead of trying to revive those.

UNI