Buddha-Mamata starts face-to-face dialogue for second time

Kolkata, Sep 12(UNI) As the Singur knot got more complex, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee started a face-to-face dialogue this evening for the second time to end the deadlock over the Nano project.

Official sources said the Chief Minister invited Ms Banerjee for talks at the Kolkata Information Centre on the basis of discussions of the four-member committee which was looking into the possibility of finding land to be returned to the 'unwilling' farmers.

The Chief Minister is being accompanied by Housing Minister Gautam Deb and Ms Banerjee by Mr Partho Chattopadhay.

This is for the second time after September seven, when they held a marathon discussion in presence of Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi that the two leaders were holding talks across the table.

Earlier in the day, the state government had submitted specific economic and land-based proposals to Trinamool Congress on Singur issue at the third meeting of a committee set up to identify land for returning to unwilling farmers.

Declining to divulge details of the proposals, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) Managing Director Subrata Gupta said, " we placed some specific economic and land-based proposals before Trinamool Congress." Trinamool Congress representative at the meeting Rabindranath Bhattacharya said he would take up the proposals with the party leadership for a decision.

Meanwhile, Tata Motors informed the state government that the land claimed by Trinamool Congress to be vacant were not so, Industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen said.

''We sent feedbacks received from Trinamool Congress to the Tata Motors about the claimed vacant plots and the Tatas have given a reply stating that those plots were already shown in the planned land-use maps for the small car project,'' he said.

The committee comprises the WBIDC Managing Director, Hooghly District Magistrate Neelam Meena from the Government side and Mr Rabindranath Bhattacharya, MLA and Mr Becharam Manna representing the Trinamool Congress.

The Trinamool representatives had been claiming that it was possible to find out 300 acres of land from within the small car factory area to be given back to farmers while the Tatas had already warned the state government against taking any measure that might hamper the integrated nature of the project comprising the mother plant and the vendor park.

UNI KDG KK RN1922