Andal: Those in the Opposition have now come to power. But the debate over land acquisition continues.
Labour minister Moloy Ghatak, on Wednesday, told Andal airport city land losers that acquired land cannot be returned, before promptly denying it on Thursday under pressure from party colleagues. The remarks turned the spotlight to a ghost car factory in Singur, 150 km away, that Tata Motors was forced to abandon in 2008 over Mamata Banerjee's agitation against farmland acquisition and demand that the land be returned.
Ghatak, who spoke to TOI on Wednesday, said exactly what former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then industry minister Nirupam Sen had repeatedly stated but was dismissed by Trinamool Congress, the party in Opposition then.
Now in government and desperate to showcase the airport city project at the forthcoming investor summit in January, Mamata wants the hurdles removed by some plain talk. That is what Ghatak did on Wednesday, telling the 100-odd disgruntled land owners that their land had been acquired in 2009-10 and there was no way to reverse the process.
31/10/14 Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Labour minister Moloy Ghatak, on Wednesday, told Andal airport city land losers that acquired land cannot be returned, before promptly denying it on Thursday under pressure from party colleagues. The remarks turned the spotlight to a ghost car factory in Singur, 150 km away, that Tata Motors was forced to abandon in 2008 over Mamata Banerjee's agitation against farmland acquisition and demand that the land be returned.
Ghatak, who spoke to TOI on Wednesday, said exactly what former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then industry minister Nirupam Sen had repeatedly stated but was dismissed by Trinamool Congress, the party in Opposition then.
Now in government and desperate to showcase the airport city project at the forthcoming investor summit in January, Mamata wants the hurdles removed by some plain talk. That is what Ghatak did on Wednesday, telling the 100-odd disgruntled land owners that their land had been acquired in 2009-10 and there was no way to reverse the process.
31/10/14 Times of India
