By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal cannot afford to lose Tata Motors' small car project in Singur buckling under opposition protests, Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said here Tuesday.
"It would be a Himalayan blunder if we would let it go from our state. This kind of opportunity does not come very often. And when it has come we have to capitalise the opportunity for the benefit of our state," Sen said during an interactive session on the developmental aspects of Bengal organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation.
Stating his government's stand on surging industrialisation in the state, he criticised the main opposition party Trinamool Congress' anti-land acquisition movement and its demand of return of the land to the farmers.
"It's very unfortunate that the opposition parties in West Bengal are misguiding the rural masses and misleading them. They definitely have a valid reason to oppose but that should be done in a logical manner," Sen said, adding, "the government now can't return the land to the farmers".
All the demands, raised by opposition parties, are nothing but attempts to thwart the positive move of the Left Front government for wooing investments in the state, the minister said.
"We have to think for better compensation package and economic rehabilitation of the farmers who have lost their land for industries. But that can only be done through dialogue, not by violence," he added.
Earlier in the day, Sen unveiled a package for Singur farmers that called for economic rehabilitation but without any possibility of returning land to the farmers.
"Land cannot be returned – either legally or practically," Sen told a press conference.