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"Industrialisation process in Singur irreversible"

96 per cent of farmers have given consent: Buddhadeb

Khejuri (West Bengal): West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has made it clear that the industrialisation process and the Tatas' car project in Singur, were irreversible, but sought to soften up protests by distributing land to landless farmers in Nandigram.

"The people need to understand that the industrial process being initiated by the State Government is irreversible and transition from agriculture to industry is an inevitable course," he told a rally organised by the CPI(M) here over the weekend. . Mr. Bhattacharjee reaffirmed his Government's resolve to make the Tata Motors small car project in Singur a reality.

He said 96 per cent of the farmers gave consent for land for the factory and took compensation cheques.

Only four per cent were yet to give their consent for handing over their land and "the question is whether the project would be scrapped for only four per cent people."

Criticising the Trinamool Congress, which is spearheading the campaign against the acquisition of farmland, he said "those who are trying to set fire to haystacks and uprooting poles of the fence at the Singur project site would not succeed in their designs. The Tata project will come up at Singur." The Chief Minister distributed rights over land to 5,040 landless farmers in Nandigram and adjoining areas and said the Government would explain to the people the benefits that would accrue from the mega chemical hub and the multi-product SEZ in Nandigram and the returns the farmers would get from it.

`We will have to think'

"If people are not convinced about this logic, we will definitely have to think of shifting the project elsewhere but we will patiently go to the people and try to answer all the questions and whatever misgivings they have," Mr. Bhattacharjee pointed out.

Referring to the troubled situation in Nandigram, he said the unrest fomented by the Opposition must end. He accused the opposition of trying to whip up people's sentiments by making ``false propaganda'' about the state's industrial policy.

PTI

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"Industrialisation process in Singur irreversible"

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