Pandemonium in WB Assembly over land for Tata's project

Kolkata, July 6 (UNI) The West Bengal Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes as the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress members were engaged in heated exchanges over the statement of Land and Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Molla regarding permission to hand over land by farmers for the Tata's small car project in Singur.

Replying to a query, Mr Molla said letter of permission from farmers was yet to be received for handing over of 326 acres of land for the project.

This created a furore among the Trinamool Congress members who said the figure was not matching with that of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who had written a letter to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee earlier clarifying the government's stand in this regard.

Showing a copy of the letter dated December 20, 2006, senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy said, the chief minister had assured Ms Banerjee that out of 997 acres of land, the government was in possession of letters of permission to hand over 954 acres of land from farmers.

''The figures given by the Chief Minister and the Land and Land Reforms Minister in regard to letter of permission from farmers to hand over land for the Singur project are contradictory and the government should clarify it,'' Mr Roy said.

''The House should know which figure is correct as it is a matter of serious concern and involves the entire land acquisition process by the government for setting up of industries,'' he observed.

This further infuriated the CPI(M) members who alleged that the Trinamool Congress was coming in the way of industrialisation in the state by ''any means.'' Amidst pandemonium, Mr Molla said he was citing figures from the official record book and was ''not in a position to rectify the figure given by the Chief Minister''.

UNI