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Friday, Aug 29, 2008
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Mamata firm on demand

Raktima Bose

“It is my moral responsibility to stand by the downtrodden”

Singur: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee said here on Thursday that she would not settle for anything less than the return of 400 acres of land allegedly acquired forcibly for the Tata small car project. Her “fight against the government will continue till that is achieved.”

“We are not against industrialisation in the State but we are against the way in which fertile agricultural land had been forcefully acquired from unwilling farmers,” she said at the dharna manch in front of the factory site.

Ms. Banerjee said her party would withdraw the agitation when the State government announced return of the land.

“A slander campaign is on against me, my supporters and our struggle against injustice,” she alleged, but this would not deter her as she considered it her “moral responsibility to stand by the downtrodden.”

“We want to know why the Tata group is being favoured over other industrial houses in facilities and concessions,” she said and charged that it was trying to monopolise the very market of essential commodities in the State.

Regarding the charge that the party demonstration held up thousands of trucks on the Durgapur Expressway that runs past the site and that goods worth lakhs of rupees were rotting, she said, “It is a false allegation as we have not blockaded any road. The entire matter has been fabricated by the State government.”

She said there were many alternative roads and the trucks could ply on them.

Some party supporters attacked a regional television channel’s van while Ms. Banerjee was delivering her speech in which she criticised a section of the media, but they stopped when she warned them that such vandalism would be at their own risk.

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