Buddha calls all-party meet on Tata land issue

Monday, 02 October 2006, 19:30 IST
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KOLKATA: In a climbdown from his unrelenting stance, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has held out an olive branch to the opposition on the controversial issue of farmland acquisition for Tata Motors' small car project at Singur. Bhattacharya has called an all-party meeting Oct 4 to discuss the issue and regretted the police baton-charge at Singur in Hooghly district on the night of Sep 25 when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, her colleagues and many farmers were injured. Banerjee was later admitted to a city nursing home after she complained of breathlessness. "It would have been better had police not been sent to Singur on that night. I did not want the undesirable incident," the chief minister said in a statement Sunday, requesting Trinamool to join the all-party meeting. "There is scope also for discussions to withdraw the cases filed by police. I request the Trinamool Congress to join the all-party meet," the chief minister said. CPI-M state secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose asked Trinamool and the Congress to call off the statewide shutdown Oct 9 in view of the "worsening flood crisis in 16 districts and the plight of marooned people". Scores of Trinamool leaders and supporters of the Singur Krishi Jami Bachao committee were arrested that night while protesting the handover of farmland to the Tatas. Trinamool Congress is yet to respond to the chief minister's invitation. "We will decide on the matter after discussing it with our leader Mamata Banerjee," Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy said.
Source: IANS