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Mamata opens Nandigram rail line work

Photo: PTI

Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee presents a gift to a newly-married bride at Nandigram in East Midnapore district on Saturday.

Kolkata: Reiterating her stand against forcible acquisition of land, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday promised “adequate compensation” to all families who give their land for railway projects.

Inaugurating work on a rail line to link Nandigram and Deshpran at Nandigram in West Bengal’s Purbo Medinipur district, Ms. Banerjee said: “Alignment [with the people] is necessary [for laying the track]. But I will never endorse forcible acquisition of land for the purpose.”

Pointing out that seven houses would have to be demolished for laying the new track, she said railway authorities would rebuild them at a different location and also provide job to a member of each of the affected families.

Ms. Banerjee dedicated the rail project to the people of Nandigram many of whom, she claimed, lost their lives or homes during the movement against land acquisition for a chemical hub in Nandigram. She said one of the stations on the new route would be named after the “Nandigram martyrs.”

The project would be completed within one-and-half-years.

She said her party, the Trinamool Congress, was opposed to the proposal to set up a chemical hub on Nayachar island, nearby. It is citing environmental reasons.

But the State government is keen on this project and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has recently given the green signal.

“We do not want tandav industry at Nayachar. Rather we will set up an eco-park utilising solar energy, over there that will serve fishermen and farmer communities…,” Ms. Banerjee said.

Accusing a section of the administration of stoking violence in the State for the sake of narrow politics, she said “democracy can never be annihilated through murder” and the State government had to give credence to a mass movement.

“We will establish peace in the State even at the cost of my own blood. Widespread development and safeguarding secularism are my primary concerns,” Ms. Banerjee said.

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