Mamata shows solidarity with fasting villagers in Bengal

Burnpur, June 29 (UNI) Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today championed the cause of the fasting villagers at Purushottampur near here in West Bengal.

Addressing a press conference, Ms Banerjee said though she was welcoming the IISCO modernisation and expansion plans, but all the land losers would have to be provided with fair price at the current rate.

Condemning the police ''excess'' on the villagers, who sat on an indefinite hunger strike to protest land acquisition, she demanded that one of the members of each family would have to be provided with jobs at IISCO.

Earlier, IISCO had given Rs 40 crore to the state government to distribute it among the land losers.

But the villagers complained that they were not paid the price in proportion to the existing market rate.

Dwelling on Singur, Ms Banerjee alleged that the arrest of CPI(M) zonal committee secretary Suhrid Dutta had proved beyond doubt that the entire party was involved in the incident.

UNI