Nano year over,Mamata now talks ‘industry’ in Singur

Mamata said the Railways was prepared to set up industry in the public-private model,provided 600 acres of the 1,000 acres land acquired for the Tata plant was given to the Railways. The remaining,contested 400 acres would be returned to the farmers from whom,she claims,land was forcibly acquired. It was on these grounds that she had protested against the Nano plant.

“The Railways is taking responsibility to set up the factory and the Centre should declare it a national project… We need 18,000 railway wagons,a railway factory has been set up at Rae Bareli,why can’t it be set up at other places?” Mamata said,hinting that it could be a factory manufacturing railway wagons.

Mamata also announced that Singur would be the first place in the country where the ambitious ‘Kisan Vision’ programme announced in this year’s Railway budget would be implemented. The Railways has about 2 acres of land at Singur which would be developed so that farmers could send their vegetables and flowers,she said,promising to arrange special rakes for this purpose.

The Union Railway Minister also announced a line connecting Singur and Nandigram,apart from doubling of railway tacks between Singur and Nalikul and other railway plans. Mamata said she had requested Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to set up a textile cluster at Dhaniakhali in Hooghly.