The Hindu : National : ‘No investor has backed out’ says Buddhadeb

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Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
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‘No investor has backed out’ says Buddhadeb

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: No prospective investor in West Bengal has backed out following the unfortunate happenings in the Nandigram area, though such incidents could send the wrong signals, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhatacharjee said here on Tuesday.

Normality was fast returning to Nandigram. A few hundred people were yet to return to their villages in the wake of hostilities, but those rendered homeless “have started retuning home,” he pointed out.

“The Central Reserve Police Force is setting up camps in the vulnerable areas and will try to create confidence among the local people and protect government offices so that they can start functioning. They have not been instructed to go there and arrest people,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

Five companies of the CRPF had reached the area and conducted route marches. Another company, comprising women personnel, was expected. The State police was also fanning out in the area, he said. Asked why the police did not enter the area in the past few months, he said: “I did not want a repeat of the March 14 situation [when 14 persons were killed in police firing].”

In an obvious reference to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s observation that “what prevails in Nandigram now is the peace of the graveyard,” the Chief Minister asked whether “what was happening there over the past 11 months was peace of the heavens.”

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