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“People of Nandigram favour industries”

Kolkata: The intermittent violence spread over 11 months at Nandigram last year notwithstanding, a cross-section of the people in the area are in favour of industries there that will provide them jobs, according to the standing committee on commerce and industries of the West Bengal Assembly.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had decided against a proposed chemical hub in the face of opposition by a section of the people, “should withdraw his decision not to set up industries in the area,” chairman of the standing committee and senior Congress MLA Sudip Bandhopadhyay said here on Tuesday.

“His decision had been taken in response to the demands of the [Trinamool Congress- led] Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh [Resistance against the Eviction from Land] Committee that was against any move to acquire land. He should reconsider his decision against setting up industries at Nandigram and work towards creating a situation where the area of confrontation will be minimised,” Mr. Bandhopadhyay told The Hindu.

“We have spoken to large sections of the people in Nandigram in Purbo Medinipur district. They want the setting up of new industries because they want jobs. Why should they be deprived of such opportunities?” he asked.

Earlier this month, Mr. Bhattacharjee said at a pattas [land ownership deeds] distribution function at Nandigram that it was unfortunate that his government had failed to convince the people of the area of the need for setting up industries in the area before announcing its plans for a chemical hub there.

Denying reports attributed to the BUPC that the government would acquire land from peasants in Nandigram once the rural polls scheduled for May were over, he said it had learnt its lesson from the hostilities of the past and had decided that industries would only be set up in the State with the concurrence of the local people.

The proposed chemical hub was being set up in Nayachar instead of Nandigram and he hoped it would also provide employment opportunities to the people of Nandigram, Mr. Bhattacharjee had said.

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