Govt to persuade and not apply force to clear blockade on DE

Kolkata, Aug 27(UNI) The West Bengal Government today said it would persuade, and not apply force to clear the blockade on Durgapur Expressway following the indefinite dharna of the Trinamool Congress near Tata Motors' small car project.

" We shall try to solve it through discussions before going for legal recourse or police intervention," Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty told reporters.

He said efforts were on to open at least one lane of the Expressway where hundreds of trucks, carrying vegetables and other perishable items, remained stranded for the past four days as a result of the virtual siege on the Singur project.

"People are in utter distress and goods are being perished. It will have effect on the market in the next few days," the Home Secretary said.

The agitators, led by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, have been on the mass dharna by the side of the Expressway since August 24 demanding that 400 acres of the Nano project's site be returned to farmers from whom it had been acquired 'forcibly'.

UNI KDG KK RN2001