It seems the CPI(M) will not make strong comments against Union railways minister and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s developmental projects, at least for now.
Taking an uncharacteristic soft stand on Friday, state industry minister Nirupam Sen told reporters, at the end of the CPI(M) state secretariat meeting, that Bengal will extend all co-operation to the projects announced for Bengal in the railway budget. “Industrial development is going to benefit the state,” Sen said.
Sen has been at the forefront of Bengal’s industrialisation drive and, for him, to make anti-developmental remarks would not exactly go down well with industry players.
Analysts say the CPI(M) is unlikely to immediately make strong comments against Mamata’s projects for Bengal, especially since she has come to power in Delhi on peoples’ verdict. But experts say the CPI(M) is biding its time, waiting to see whether Mamata is able to fulfil her promises.
Land has become a controversial issue in Bengal after Nandigram and Singur. “The CPI(M) will wait and watch how land is acquired for the 1,000MW power project announced for Adra in Purulia and for the medical college attached to the existing railway hospital at Barasat, north of Kolkata, through a PPP model,” said a source. The railways is slated to sign an MoU with NTPC for setting up the power plant on land that is to be provided by the former. However, even if land is available in Purulia, it is not a continuous but scattered across Adra division. Around 3,000 acres are required, 1,500 acres each for the plant and a residential complex though the latter need not be on the same campus.
“The CPI(M) is watching with interest how Mamata goes about acquiring land here,” a source said.Sources say Mamata has advised rail officials not to acquire land for the power plant but to use land available with the railways. Even if land is needed to be acquired, it must not be agricultural land.
