Mamata's "No" to Buddhadeb's letter for dialogue on Singur

Singur/Kolkata, Aug 25 (UNI) Dashing hopes for a breakthrough in the Singur impasse, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today spurned offer of talks from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, putting foot down for returning 400 acre of the Tatas' small car project and continuing the indefinite siege on it.

'' We also want to have discourse on the situation in Singur. We will attend talks at any place and at any time if the 400 acre of land is returned to the farmers from whom it has been forcefully acquired, '' she said during her party's mass dharna near the project site.

Earlier, Giving another call for reconciliation over the political problem arising out of the land acquisition for the small car project, the Chief Minister appealed to the Trinamool chief throught a letter to continue dialogue to break the stalemate.

With a futile meeting between the Government and the Trinamool Congress taking place in between, this was the second letter throught which Mr Bhattacharjee appealed to the feisty Trinamool leader in the past one week to come to a truce by discarding her 'give-back-land' demand and settling for the issue of rehabilitation of land losers.

'' There is no question of terminating the movement. In the coming days, it will spread from the state to the nation, '' Ms Banerjee declared making it clear she would not backtrack unless her demand was met.

The Government had earlier tried to explain to the Opposition the need for retaining the entire stretch of 997 acre, acquired for the integrated project, designed to comprise the car manufacturing plant and units for component manufacturers.

However, the Trinamool claimed that the party had a viable alternative plan for sustenance of the project even after curtailing 400 acre out of the site.

Peeved at the unabated turmoil that was hindering the project, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata had sounded a pull-out threat on August 22, saying the company would have no option but to relocate the Nano car project elsewhere out of West Bengal if the violence and disruption in work continued.

The Tata Motors has set a deadline of October this year for rolling out the Rs one lakh car from its Singur factory.

Eds. here pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI KDG-XC SJC RN RC VC2110