The Hindu : National : Mamata demands dismissal of Left Front Government

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007
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National

National

Mamata demands dismissal of Left Front Government

Special Correspondent

`Six lakh acres of farm land diverted, another two lakh acres in tow'

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee demanded here on Tuesday immediate intervention of the Centre and dismissal of the Left Front government whose move to acquire agricultural land for setting up industries had thrown the State into chaos.

"The government had unleashed State-sponsored terrorism in West Bengal in the name of land acquisition and the Centre should no longer remain quiet," Ms. Banerjee said, adding that she would be seeking meetings with both the President and the Prime Minister to inform them of the situation in the State.

"The President and the Prime Minister must intervene and sack the State Government immediately. When a government cannot function in a democratic manner it should go," she said, claiming that the State was in the throes of a "Constitutional crisis."

For the second successive day the Trinamool Congress leader remained critical of the Tata Group of companies at whom she has been directing her ire for going ahead with the car manufacturing project by Tata Motors coming up at Singur in Hooghly district. "The State Government here is not listening to anyone but only hybrid capitalists like the Tatas. We are convinced there is a scam behind all this," Ms. Banerjee told newspersons.

"The State Government does not have the right to keep providing land to a company by looting the poor of their plots," she said.

She demanded that the Centre send an "expert team" to look into the forcible acquisition of land that is going on.

"Already six lakh acres of agricultural land has been diverted and the State Government is planning to divert another two lakh acres," she said.

Talks were on for inducting other political parties into her movement and the Krishi Jami Raksha [Save Farmland] Committee will be extending its campaign to across the nation from March 19, she said.

As for her intention to meet the President and the Prime Minister she said "it was at their request and the promise that discussions would precede any move to acquire agricultural land for industry that I had called off my hunger-strike [in December]. But what actually followed was no discussions and intensification of atrocities [against those opposed to the government]."

Ms Banerjee also demanded that the "Centre formulate a policy on land use and ways to ensure the protection of agricultural land."

"We are not against industry but want the peaceful co-existence of the agricultural and industrial sectors," she said.

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