Kolkata: Chances of a solution to Singur impasse today appeared to have receded further with the West Bengal government warning for the first time that the Tatas would leave the state if a consensus is not reached soon.
Tata Motors have threatened a pullout if there was further delay in accepting its rehabilitation package for farmers. Adding to the tension in negotiation is the Trinamool Congress' threat of a fresh agitation if its demand was not accepted.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had met the West Bengal governor on Sunday to convey to him that he was open for talks with Trinamool Congress on the package that provides for 70 acres of land from within the Tata Motors car project area and compensation.
Bhattacharjee appealed to the opposition parties to withdraw their agitation and accept the offered package.
"I appeal to opposition parties to accept the government's package on the land acquisition at Singur for the Tata Motors factory and withdraw the agitation. If there is any further delay, this project will leave West Bengal," he
said in a statement.
Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, however, gave the government a seven-day deadline to operationalise the September 7 agreement reached between her and Bhattacharjee in the presence of Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi or she would resume her suspended dharna outside the Tata Motors plant at Singur.
Bhattacharjee's firm stand left the Trinamool Congress chief fuming.
She charged that the government had flouted its own agreement of providing maximum land from within the Tata Motors project area.
After a three-and-a-half-hour long meeting of the Save Farmland Committee, Mamata said she would seek the intervention of the Prime Minister and the President as the state government had 'failed' to respect democratic norms and the Constitution by not honouring the agreement reached in the presence of the Governor.
She said if the Centre could warn Karnataka for invoking Article 355 for the attacks on churches, it could do the same in West Bengal for the state government not honouring the agreement.
"After the invocation of Article 355, there should be imposition of Article 356 to dismiss the Left Front government which has lost all moral right to continue in office," she said.
"In a week's time, we will meet the Prime Minister and the President. If nothing happens, we will resume the dharna at Singur which we had suspended," she said.
The Chief Minister's statement came in the backdrop of a number of states offering land and incentives to Tata Motors to set up the Nano project there.
"Since the project will go out of West Bengal if there is further delay, therefore without any loss of time Tata Motors and ancillary units should be given the opportunity to resume work at Singur," Bhattacharjee said.
"Let all of us take the initiative to successfully implement this promising project in the interest of the state, the entire people of Singur and future generations," he said.
The Trinamool Congress chief, speaking on Bhattacharjee's appeal to accept the package and withdraw the agitation said, "If the Tatas leave, it is their affair. There is a mutual agreement with them (the government and Tatas)."
She said it was the government which was not interested in solving the problem. "They are neither for the industry nor agriculture."
Mamata said she had met Gandhi prior to the agreement after he wrote to her stating that the state government had offered a land-based solution in and around the Nano project area.
"Therefore, I had attended the meeting (on September 7) for a face-to-face meeting with the chief minister. But the government did not operationalise the agreement and turned 180 degrees and declared a rehabilitation package unilaterally," she said.
Prior to resumption of dharna, the Trinamool Congress plans a rally at Singur on September 26 after observing 'Singur Diwas' a day earlier.
"We also know that this is the time of Ramzan and will be followed by Durga Puja. We will not inconvenience the people. But at the same time the movement will go on."
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