Sen suffered from chest pain, fluctuating blood pressure and uneasiness. According to the hospital sources, the minister is in the intensive critical care unit and examinations are being conducted on him.
Land, the core issue of contention, is now being acquired selectively for the sake of setting up new industries and that too in areas where agriculture is weak.
West Bengal government would continue to invite investments despite the controversy over acquisition of agricultural land for setting up industrial units, the state's industry minister Nirupam Sen said on Tuesday.
Fresh from the Nandigram flashpoint, the West Bengal government is set to begin a two-way 'battle' to keep industrialisation going in the state.
The industry minister said the small car project could not come up if 400 acre was returned as demanded by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Nirupam Sen, who had discussed the Singur project with Tata in Kolkata on Thursday night, said that the state government wanted to work out a solution and was was open for talks to find out an acceptable solution.
West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi on Thursday held a series of meetings with the state government and Trinamool Congress in the run up to Friday's crucial talks that could discuss a proposal for higher compensation for farmers whose land was acquired for the Tata Motors car project.
She turned down the renewed proposal by Industry Minister Nirupam Sen that she might accept Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's offer to return 100 acres of land to unwilling farmers in Singur.
Both the warring sides claim they are keen to see industry come up in Singur -- the abandoned site of the Nano factory near Kolkata. But nine months after the decision to relocate the Nano factory, there has been no forward movement on setting up an industry in Singur.
West Bengal's Left Front government is working on a proposal to find a solution to the stand-off over acquisition of land in Singur for Tata Motors' car plant, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu said on Friday.
"The chief minister has written to Tata requesting him to restart work at the Nano plant at Singur," Industry Minister Nirupam Sen told reporters in Kolkata. In his letter, Bhattacharjee promised to extend all help and cooperation to the Tatas. On speculation that the Tatas might shift their project from the state, Sen said the company had not yet taken the decision.
The UPA government's Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill could be the last nail in the coffin for industrialisation in West Bengal.
Commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen and land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah say the figures are yet to be collated. West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation sources said land losers would only be known once the projects are awarded.
A directional landmine blast took place at Baroa, 17 km from Salboni, from where the West Bengal CM, Paswan, state industry minister Nirupam Sen and industrialist Sajjan Jindal were returning after laying the foundation stone of Jindal Steel Works plant, police said.
According to a recent Assocham study, the business confidence index for the state stood at 6.5 on a scale of 10, with respondents stating that West Bengal could be treated at par with Gujarat, Maharastra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh as a favourable investment destinations.
State commerce and industry minister, Nirupam Sen, and secretary, Sabysachi Sen are in Mumbai and have held a series of meetings with industrialists in Mumbai, including Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance and Ashok Hinduja of the Hinduja group.
German multinational distribution chain Metro Cash and Carry International is planning to set up distribution infrastructure for agricultural produce in West Bengal.
Talking about the much-debated issue of land acquisition, Sen said industry bodies were in favour of direct purchase of land from the owners and state governments to be mere facilitators.
Investments of Rs 47,000 crore under implementation.
The company wrote to the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Left front government seeking clarification on the agreement in the wake of conflicting reports about the return of project land to farmers. A Tata group spokesperson confirmed that the company had written a letter to the government.
The Tatas had earlier stated that it could return the land if compensation was offered. Tata Motors last year shifted its small car Nano project from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat after protest by local farmers and political parties.
The West Bengal government said on Thursday it would go ahead with land acquisition for the Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 10 billion) small car project of Tata Motors at Singur in Hooghly district before Puja.
West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur on Thursday signed a memorandum of association to develop the state's first biotechnology park at Kharagpur.
Of the three options suggested by the consultancy firm appointed by the CPI(M) government, Nayachar was feasible since it was government land, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said at an all-party meeting.
West Bengal government said on Wednesday it would consider reduction in taxes on petrol and diesel only if the Centre reduced excise duty on these products.
After a marathon meet (lasting over two and half hours) with Bhattacharya and state Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, Tata and the chief minister fielded questions from the media.
State Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, in his first public address in this area since Tata Motors chose it as the site of its new car plant in May 2006, said many companies were poised to follow Tata's lead in setting up shop in Singur.
Sen said that as per the lease agreement, concluded recently with the company, it would have to pay a lease rent of Rs 1 crore per year for the first five years to the state.
The Trinamool will be as vulnerable to traders' blandishments as the CPI(M) is.
BHEL officials had inspected the site in Singur earlier this month where the state government proposed to set up a 1600 MW mega power plant as a joint venture. Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had last week said the Railways would set up a rail coach factory in the site jointly with the state government or under a PPP model.
'The land is partly with the government, partly with the company. In the changed economic scenario, I cannot say how quickly another plant will come up there,' said West Bengal's Industry Minister Nirupam Sen.
The total investment - by Tata Motors and its vendors - in the Rs 1 lakh car project is Rs 3,700 crore (Rs 37 billion). The West Bengal government on Thursday disclosed that the investment in the vendor park would be around Rs 2,200 crore (Rs 22 billion).
At ground level, Trinamool leaders are quite reasonable and supportive. But TC is such a party where opinions of the grassroot-level people don't matter. The party has decided to oppose whatever development work we undertake, says
Mother plant apart, the project involved 54 ancillary units, which meant enormous employment potential. People would have had the experience of seeing a modern industry.
Not a single opposition party is saying it is against industrialisation and this reinforces our belief that people are not against industrialisation as a concept
Getting the first tyres out from the Sahaganj plant will still require a lot of effort, but with the state government on its side, the hopes are high.
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