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.
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.
Intervening in the Security Council debate on 'threat to international peace and security due to terrorism', Indian ambassador to UN Nirupam Sen said international cooperation was vital to 'root out' the network of illicit activities, including clandestine proliferation of sensitive technologies. Sen also stressed on the need for the Council to work with the General Assembly to strengthen the multi-lateral and collective dimensions of counter terrorism effort.
Hardeep Singh Puri, currently secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. He will succeed Nirupam Sen, whose term ended on March 31. The Ministry of External Affairs stated that Puri was expected to take up his assignment shortly in New York. Puri, 57, a 1974-batch Indian Foreign Services officer, is known for his expertise on economic issues, especially on World Trade Organisation-related matters.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
The UPA government's Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill could be the last nail in the coffin for industrialisation in West Bengal.
Just as political battles hot up along with rural polls in West Bengal, a certain report in the most circulated regional daily Anandabazar Patrika has caused major discomfort for the Left Front.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A 'pause-and-review' approach to nuclear power isn't extreme. Safety is too precious to be sacrificed to appease our nuclear lobby, writes Praful Bidwai
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.
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
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.
"We need to go much further in realising the well established objective of degrading the ability of the Taliban to fight while simultaneously denying safe-havens, finances and armament," Indian Ambassador to UN Nirupam Sen told the Security Council on Tuesday.
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.
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.
Intervening in a Security Council debate on post-conflict peace-building, Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen roundly criticised Bretton Woods institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, for non-involvement of such nations in the planning for development.
India has sought an 'unequivocal commitment' from all nuclear-weapon states to prohibit development, production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons for their non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination within a specified framework. Indian Ambassador to the UN, Nirupam Sen appealed to member states to use the UN forum for an intense dialogue and strengthen the international community to initiate concrete steps for a nuclear weapons-free world.
"We should not underestimate the Taliban and Al-Qaeda nor fight terrorism with any less military and political determination than in the immediate post-2001 days after terrorist attacks on the United States," India's UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen told the Security Council on Wednesday.
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
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.
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.
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.
German multinational distribution chain Metro Cash and Carry International is planning to set up distribution infrastructure for agricultural produce in West Bengal.
Investments of Rs 47,000 crore under implementation.
India played a key role in making the Human Rights Council possible.
A day after a blast at Ajmer dargah claimed three lives, India asked the international community to send a clear signal to terrorists and their sponsors that their action will not be tolerated irrespective of the motivation and the underlying cause. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly's legal committee, Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen asked the nations to devise a global response to deal with terrorism, saying nothing can justify the senseless killing of innocents
Pressing for "actual negotiations" on the issue of UN Security Council expansion, India has asked the General Assembly for discussions to be held in an interactive format, as representatives of the world body met in New York to launch parleys on reforms.
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.
Fresh from the Nandigram flashpoint, the West Bengal government is set to begin a two-way 'battle' to keep industrialisation going in the state.
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