By IANS,
Kolkata: The West Bengal government Saturday said it will acquire land for the projects announced by Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Banerjee, whose party has been involved in several anti-land acquisition agitations in the state, has announced many projects for the state, and the railways need at least 321 acres for eight projects across various districts.
State Land and Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said the process for acquiring land has already started and the government had not faced any opposition in the drive.
“Usually the public does not create problems against land acquisition if the projects are state-run,” Mollah said.
“There would not have been any problem in land acquisition had the Singur project by the Tata Motors been a government project,” he added.
Singur, 40 km from here, turned into a battleground since May 2006 after the Left Front government announced auto major Tata Motors’ world’s cheapest car Nano project there.
The protesters, backed by the opposition party Trinamool Congress, demanded the return of 400 acres of the total 997.11 acres acquired for the project to farmers. Finally, Tata Motors in October 2008 moved the plant to Gujarat.
Trinamool has often been identified with anti-land acquisition movements in the state.
Besides Singur, the party also involved in the agitation against setting up a chemical hub project in Nandigram. The government had to shift the project to Nayachar in East Midnapore district following the agitation.
Banerjee won a landslide victory in the April-May Lok Sabha polls in areas where she took the lead in the anti-land acquisition drive.