CPI-M’s chemical hub is actually killing hub: Mamata

By IANS

Nandigram : Reiterating her opposition to the setting up of a chemical hub in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday said the communist rulers were not planning a chemical hub but a “killing hub”.


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Addressing a public rally at Sonachura in trouble-torn Nandigram in East Midnapore district, where fresh violence two days back claimed another life, Banerjee said: “We will not allow any chemical hub or land grab in the name of that. They are for killing hub, not chemical hub.”

“The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) still eyes Nandigram,” she said as she vowed to fight the Left Front government’s move to set up a chemical hub in neighbouring Haldia.

“The blood stains of Nandigram are yet to dry and he (Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya) is talking about a chemical hub,” she said.

The firebrand leader also announced to take her battle to Khejuri, the neighbouring area of Nandigram that is a stronghold of the CPI-M and out of bounds of the anti-land acquisition Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee.

Banerjee said she would hold rallies in Khejuri, which is used as a base by the CPI-M to launch attack on the villagers of Nandigram.

Earlier, Banerjee had ruled out the possibility of Trinamool Congress taking part in an all-party meeting on Sep 3 over the proposed chemical hub in Haldia.

Bhattacharya has called the all-party meeting to find a consensus over the hub in an alternative location after the flare-up in Nandigram, where it was originally planned.

In fact, faced with severe opposition over land acquisition, the state government has decided to scale down the area of the chemical hub to 4,000 acres from the planned 10,000 acres.

The proposed chemical hub as part of a special economic zone (SEZ) in collaboration with the Salim group of Indonesia had triggered a bloodbath in Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata, since January, claiming at least 25 lives so far, including 14 deaths on March 14 in police firing on the villagers resisting entry of cops in the area.

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