In 1985, when Madhav Rao Scindhia was the railway minister and Mamata Banerjee a first-time MP from West Bengal, the department had acquired 700 acres of land for a railway yard in the Howrah district of the state. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the CPI(M) has decided to take on Banerjee’s land acquisition politics over this tract of land.
“We have planned an agitation. Either the railway builds its proposed rail yard or return the land to farmers,” party’s central committee member Hannan Mollah said.
The CPI(M)’s agitation would include processions from three corners of the state, a sit-in demonstration and submission of a petition to the Centre through the Bengal governor.
This demand is similar to the one by Banerjee during the agitations in Singur and Nandigram where prized industrial projects were lost over land acquisition politics.
In Singur, Banerjee had insisted that Tata Motors should build its Nano factory on 600 acres of land and return 300 acres to farmers. “She is advocating return of unutilised land to farmers. We are also demanding the same. The Centre must take a call,” Mollah said.
But why pick on an issue which is 25 years old? “We want to see whether she is true to the causes she espouses,”
he said.
