Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has called an all-party meeting here on Wednesday to discuss the misgivings of Opposition parties over the setting up of the proposed car manufacturing plant by Tata Motors at Singur in Hooghly district.

The project is being opposed by the Trinamool Congress and the Congress on the ground that the plant is to be set up on agricultural land.

While the Congress, despite reservations of certain leaders, is not averse to attending the meeting the Trinamool leadership has maintained that it will not do so. The party will, instead, launch a campaign against the move to set up the plant on that day, it was decided on Monday.

Demands apology

Earlier, the Trinamool had demanded that the Chief Minister "publicly" apologise for the police action against its leader Mamata Banerjee and party workers during a demonstration at Singur on September 25 against the land acquisition for the project.

Mr. Bhattacharjee, in a statement on Sunday, said it was not his intention that such an unfortunate incident should have occurred at Singur. It would have been better had the police action not been necessary, he said. There was scope for discussion for withdrawing the cases filed by the police against the protesters.

Biman Bose, Secretary of the State Committee of the CPI(M), appealed to the Trinamool to withdraw its call for a State-wide bandh on October 9. Mr. Bose said the bandh would not be in the interests of the people.

The Trinamool, however, would not budge from its stand, leaders said.

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