Villagers stall railway project,demand jobs

“The entire stretch has been lying unused for so many years. We depended entirely on agriculture. We had given up the land assuming the factory would provide us direct and indirect employment. But nothing happened and we suffered immensely all these years,” said Shaik Mohammad Siddiqui,president of the Bhagabatipur Krishi Jeevan O Jeevika Raksha Committee,which was formed in January 2010,after Banerjee announced the new project. “The current market price of the land is Rs 3 lakh per cottah. We want compensation at that rate and a railway job for one member of each family. We will not let this project happen until our demands are fulfilled,” he said.

On Monday,when officials of the South-Eastern Railway had started the ash-filling work on the stretch,300 people from the committee resisted them. They expressed their demands to the officials who said they would talk the matter with the Railway Administrative Officer (S-E Railway).

“The Railway had acquired our land saying they would build a factory on it. But Mamata Banerjee announced the project will be on the PPP model. If private players are given an entry,then the local people who gave up their land then should also be allowed to use their share of land on lease. Besides,they should also get railway jobs,” said Biplab Majumdar,CPM district secretary of Howrah.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said,“We will act according to the court’s orders. However,the project will happen only if the local people want it.”

* Industry Minister Nirupam Sen with Wolfgang Wiertz,the MD of German firm Gapcon Engineering Pvt Ltd in Kolkata on Tuesday after the company signed a lease agreement with West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) for setting up a paper machine calendar unit at Kalyani.

* The engineering firm has been alloted two acres of land and will initially invest Rs 10 crore. “In terms of investment this project might not be big but the technology they are bringing will have future prospects,” said Sen.

Wiertz said the unit will come up next year and it will be their company’s first investment outside Germany. We chose Kalyani,he said,for its better connectivity with port and secure political environment.