Singur impasse: Trinamool delegates meets Governor

Kolkata, Aug 31: A 16-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress, led by Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee, on Sunday, Aug 31 met West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi at the Raj Bhawan here.

Immediately after the meeting with the Governor, the delegation proceeded to Singur to hold discussions with Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee. However, Mr Chatterjee refused to divulge the details of the meeting, saying that Ms Banerjee herself will announce the outcome of the meeting and the next course of action to be taken up by the party at Singur. The meeting with the Governor lasted about an hour. Governor had appealed to Ms Banerjee to solve the problem over the Tata Motors' Nano project through discussions.

Expressing concern over the situation that snowballed over the state's industrial and political scenario, the Governor sent a letter to Ms Banerjeeon on Saturday, Aug 30 requesting her to agree for talks to find out a solution, acceptable to both the Trinamool Congress and the state government.

The Govenor's letter, a copy of which was sent to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, also mentioned about the need for taking the help of a mediator, if necessary, in the process of talks to solve the imbroglio.

Leading a forum of 22 outfits and organisations, Ms Banerjee has been on the dharna near the Nano project since August 24 to press for her demand that 400 acres out of the total 997 acres of the project site be returned to farmers.

The agitation virtually laid a siege on the small car project and choked the National Highway 2, running through Singur forcing Tata Motors to declare a temporary shutdown and immobilising thousands of trucks carrying goods.

UNI