December 22, 2010
Mamata slams CPM over Dankuni, Sankrail stir
The CPM is throwing a spanner into the works for proposed railway projects at Sankrail in Howrah and Dankuni as the party has realised that they cannot make money through contractors, railways minister Mamata Banerjee claimed in Krishnagar on Tuesday. Coming down hard on the CPM during a railway programme, the Trinamool chief said she was not involved in the land acquisition process at Sankrail or Dankuni. “Is it my fault that I decided to set up factories there? The plot at Sankrail was acquired well before I became an MP. The one at Dankuni was acquired in 1965. The CPM had no problem that they were lying unused for so many years. Now that I have planned to set up industries there, they have embarked upon a campaign against it. The actual reason is that all efforts by the state government to set up factories have failed. The one that the Jindals had planned to set up in Salboni has not yet made any progress. In Singur, they blamed me for opposing industrialisation. I never said that a factory should not come up there. I only said that the factory should come up on 600 acres,†Mamata said. She said the CPM has been lying when alleging that the railways have forcibly acquired land. “All the projects that I have mentioned are Special Projects. Whoever gives land will get compensation and jobs. It is a declared stand of the railways. Mamata Banerjee does not believe in forcible acquisition,†she added. She asserted that no attention has been paid to developments of railway infrastructure in the state for the last 10 years. “Instead of raising slogans against me, the CPM should answer why it didn’t do anything when Lalu Prasad was the railway minister. The CPM was a part of the UPA then,†she pointed out. Claiming that the people would ‘take care’ of the CPM soon, the leader announced a number of projects for Nadia. She laid the foundation of a mega bridge across the Bhagirathi between Nabadwip Dham and Nabadwip Ghat. She also promised to set up a museum at Plassey. After the programme at Krishnagar, Mamata left for Chakla where a temple of Loknath Baba is located. On expected lines, she promised to develop Chakla into a pilgrimage spot on the lines of Varanasi and Tarakeswar.
Courtesy: The Times of India
Image Courtesy: Sambad Pratidin
