Chakraborty accuses Bajaj, Suzuki of backing Mamata

by Romita Datta

LIVEMINT,

Posted: Tue, Oct 14 2008. 12:28 AM IST

Kolkata: Members of West Bengal’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPIM-led government on Monday claimed Tata Motors Ltd’s Nano project at Singur was scuttled by the company’s rivals Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Bajaj Auto Ltd, and that the state government would soon announce a new project, involving a large automobile firm, on the same plot of land where the Tata factory was to come up.

Replying to a question on the fate of the 997 acre plot, CPIM member of Parliament and central committee member Shyamal Chakrabarty said: “The land cannot be kept idle. Neither can it be returned... Of course, Mamata Banerjee and Bajaj and Suzuki, who were behind her, would love to auction the land and return (it) to the farmers. The government has no such intention.”

While Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj said the allegation was “false” and “not correct”, executives at Maruti Suzuki could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday evening.
On 3 October, Tata Motors announced that it would no longer be building a factory to produce its small car, Tata Nano, in Singur. The company had decided to house the plant in West Bengal more than two years ago. The state government acquired land for the project from farmers, some of whom were unwilling to part with their source of livelihood. Matters came to a head in August when Banerjee, the leader of CPM rival Trinamool Congress, laun-ched a protest near the factory that was almost complete.

When talks between the government, the company and Banerjee didn’t end the impasse, Tata Motors pulled out. On 7 October, it said the factory would come up in Sanand in Gujarat instead.
According to Indian law, land acquired for a particular project under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, cannot be returned to the owners if the project is abandoned. It has to be auctioned and the highest bidder has the option of returning it to the land owners.

Chakrabarty’s comments came on the sidelines of the second day of the CPM’s central committee meeting. The committee approved efforts by the state government to attract investment and asked chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen to look for an alternative investor who would set up a manufacturing facility at Singur.

Meanwhile, Subhas Chakrabarty, the state’s transport minister, said on Monday at Writers’ Building, the seat of the West Bengal government, that the state government is all set to finalize a memorandum of understanding with a big automobile company for the same plot at Singur, where the Tata Motors factory was being built.

The legalities of this process weren’t immediately clear.

‘Liberalisation has affected national integration’: JYOTI BASU

NEW DELHI, Oct. 13: The CPI-M veteran and former West Bengal chief minister, Mr Jyoti Basu, has told the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that national integration had suffered due to “unbridled penetration of foreign capital” and policies of liberalisation.

Replying to an invitation to attend the National Integration Council (NIC), Mr Basu told the Prime Minister that policies of liberalisation had opened the economy to “marauding forays of multi-national corporations” and regional imbalances were growing. Mr Basu said national integration would have received strength if the Directive Principles of State Policy were implemented, and recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission were put into practice.

The basic thrust of the political outlook, he said, must comprise land reforms, higher wages, more state intervention in agrarian, economic and financial sectors, defence of the public sector, and a strong defence of the rights of the socially and economically oppressed, and the minorities. The CPI-M veteran said “an important component of the move towards national integration would be a move away from a US-dominated foreign policy. For all this to be reality, the Central government must exert the correct political will in abundance or the nation’s existence itself will in the long run be imperilled”.

According to Mr Basu, even communalisation had its roots in economic and social backwardness. “Mere reservations, necessary as they are, cannot prevent such a phenomenon from taking place without economic empowerment in particular. Because of what can be called the class-caste correspondence, those at the bottom of the economic structure are also thus at the bottom of the social structure,” Mr Basu said.

He said various reports on the plight of the minority communities were gathering dust. The communal menace could be fought through political will and administrative courage and commitment to secular values. “There is widespread compromise with communalism for narrow electoral gains. Majoritarian communalism has in turn given rise to minority communalism and things are taking a more and more violence turn,” the Left stalwart said. He said national integration could be improved through electoral reforms, definition of secularism as a basic feature of the Constitution, and a reversal in the harmful direction of Centre-state relations.

Nirupam Sen admitted to hospital

KOLKATA,14th Oct.: CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and West Bengal Commerce and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen was admitted to a city private hospital on Tuesday, following complaints of chest pain, fluctuating blood pressure and uneasiness.

His condition is stable, according to hospital sources. Several CPI(M) Polit Bureau members (now in the city on the occasion of the party meeting) visited Mr. Sen at the hospital in Salt Lake City.

A medical board, comprising seven consultant specialists, has been constituted to monitor Mr. Sen’s condition. A doctor from the States referral hospital the SSKM Hospital also attended to Mr. Sen on invitation. A bulletin issued by the hospital stated that several medical tests were being conducted on him and he was under constant monitoring and observation.

“We can diagnose the cause for Mr. Sen’s illness only after careful examination of the medical reports,” said Debasish Sarma, medical superintendent of the hospital. He added that they were trying their best to discharge him as quickly as possible. Mr. Sen had a normal diet on Tuesday.

During the day, Biman Basu, general secretary of the CPI (M)’s State committee , Brinda Karat, West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and Health Minister Surjya Kanta Mishra called on Mr. Sen.