By IANS,
Kolkata : Conceding that there were “shortcomings” in the Left Front government’s land reforms programme, West Bengal’s Transport and Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty Wednesday said the front would have to make way for an improved alternative in due course of time.
“There are some shortcomings in our land reforms project. Land reforms does not merely mean giving land to the people. We could not relate to the people how they should use their land,” he said.
“People don’t understand that land is an asset, and they can use the land for profit. So, people were taken in by the propaganda (of the opposition),” he said in a reference to the agitation of the opposition against the acquisition of farmland by the government for industries.
Asked whether the landlosers were feeling insecure, the minister said, “Nobody is feeling insecure. They were only misled by the campaign.”
Coming down heavily on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress’ sustained campaign on the land issue, Chakraborty said in an interview to a private television channel Star Ananda: “We need industries. What Mamata is doing is putting the clock back. She is dividing the people.”
Asked about the future of the Left Front, he said: “We will do very well in the coming Lok Sabha polls… But yes, the wheels of time will one day in the distant future see the front being replaced by another entity. That will never be Mamata Banerjee’s party. But I have faith that it will be an improved Left force.”