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Mamata declines to meet Speaker

KOLKATA: West Bengal Assembly Speaker H.A. Halim has said that he had a new proposal to offer to Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to help break the Singur deadlock, but the latter declined to meet him.

Mr. Halim told reporters that the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Partha Chatterjee, told him over the phone that Ms. Banerjee regarded him as her father, but did not want to meet him as she felt that the meeting would be futile.

However, the Speaker refused to say anything on his proposal.

Mr. Chatterjee, who is the general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, told Mr. Halim that they were ready to accept the Speaker as a "mediator" to resolve the issue provided he convinced the Chief Minister to accept the "new formula" offered by Ms. Banerjee.

On Saturday, the Trinamool chief proposed that around 500 acres of land acquired "forcibly" by the Government be returned to farmers and instead 450 acres of low land available adjacent to it be acquired for the project. Ms. Banerjee's indefinite hunger strike on the Singur issue entered the 14th day on Sunday. She was very weak and her health was deteriorating, Mr. Chattterjee said.

Somnath renews appeal

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Sunday renewed his appeal to Ms. Banerjee to end the fast.

In Shillong, Nationalist Congress Party leader Purno A. Sangma asked Ms. Banerjee to end her fast, saying the country could not "afford to lose her." She did have a "valid point."— PTI

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Mamata declines to meet Speaker

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