The surprisingly strong opposition to land acquisition in Singur and earlier events at Nandigram, where local protests forced the government to scrap plans for a chemical hub, have induced investors keen on acquiring land in West Bengal to come up with compensation packages that can only be described as extravagant.
After deciding to release 52 political prisoners, the West Bengal government will now withdraw cases filed by the Left Front regime against those who took part in Singur and Nandigram movements, and at Netai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday.
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.
Members of a Trinamool Congress-backed body torched a police watch-tower and uprooted fence posts at the Tata Motors' small car project site.
Sekhar Roy was summoned by the police in connection with a social media post he made over the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Nandigram has seen violent incidents over the issue of acquisition of land for a SEZ to be set up by Indonesia's Salim Group.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
He was reviled by critics in his party as a neo-liberal in disguise but till the end, he retained his belief in secularism and the humanity of Communism.
The CPI-M leader was the chief minister of the state from 2000 to 2011.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
The Trinamool government, which cashed in on the Nandigram protests in West Bengal politics, has not yet given the Central Bureau of Investigation the sanction to prosecute five police officers involved in the 2007 police firing which killed 14 villagers.
'Didi' became the real 'Dada' as she got past the post, on a wheelchair and a foot in cast, a souvenir from the Nandigram battle against former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari.
On Wednesday, Bengal's own daughter she firmly pitched herself as, was sworn in as the chief minister of the turbulent state for the third successive term amid raging fires of political violence and a rampaging pandemic.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 farmers' unions, on Friday urged agriculturists and other people of West Bengal not to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming elections.
'One Sandeshkhali won't turn around women's perception of Mamata Banerjee in this state'
The Trinamool Congress rose like a phoenix from the Singur and Nandigram movements chipping away at the hold of the Left Front to sweep into the portals of power in West Bengal after 34 years of uninterrupted Marxist rule. The land agitation in Singur and Nandigram is widely credited for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's meteoric rise and the dramatic change in her political fortunes
A team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday held on-spot inquiries in Sandeshkhali to ascertain facts about alleged sexual abuse by some Trinamool Congress leaders even as fresh agitation rocked the trouble-torn village, where locals torched the property of accused Trinamool leaders and held demonstrations against the delay in arresting the main accused, Shahjahan Sheikh.
Branding Trinamool Congress rebels as 'traitors' like Mir Jafar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party for fielding the turncoats in the polls leaving saffron party old-timers shed tears.
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.
A victory in Nandigram would not only establish him as one of the tallest BJP leaders in Bengal but would push him miles ahead of others in the chief ministerial race if the party is voted to power.
Fourteen persons were killed in the firing on a demonstration against land acquisition on March 14, leading to a nationwide outrage and the Calcutta high court 'suo motu' ordering a CBI investigation.
Even as it comes to terms with the land acquisition controversy in Nandigram and Singur, the CPI(M)-led West Bengal government has handed over the order for possession of 4,300 acres
However, a few defectors, who joined the BJP, got the better of their TMC rivals, including Suvendu Adhikari who emerged as a proverbial giant slayer, by defeating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee albeit by a narrow margin.
A quick look at the 66-year-old leader's political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career over the years.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, who is on two-day visit to West Bengal to address the party cadre said at a rally that party wants a huge victory in the 2016 assembly elections in Kolkata.
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
The state now has a new policy, under a new government.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that Trinamool Congress was totally against forcible acquisition of land for industrial purposes and the choice of giving up land should be left to the people. "We are against forcible acquisition of land. Our party fought in Singur and Nandigram against land acquisition. If the people agree to give land, it is their decision," Banerjee said.
Mamata must be whole-heartedly congratulated and supported. If she errs in future, we must be ready to correct her, says Tarun Vijay.
Developments in Nandigram and Singur, where the government's bid to acquire farm land for industrialization ran into stiff resistance from locals and main opposition Trinamool Congress, have given enough worries to the ruling alliance.
In 2006, the Left Front won the Assembly elections in West Bengal on the basis of its pro-industrialisation campaign led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The much-awaited policy for mandatory rehabilitation of land owners displaced by industrial projects and SEZs might get delayed with the matter being referred to a Group of Ministers.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday came down heavily on the Centre for alleged "politically motivated" questions asked at the CAPF (central armed police force) recruitment examination and said it proved that BJP has politicised the central forces to serve its political interests.
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.
Mahasweta Devi has taken a break from writing and is engaged in social work these days.
West Bengal, the chief minister said, has come a long way as far as industrial growth is concerned and now the responsibility lies on the people to take it to the next level.
The affected community must share in the gains from the use of its land for development.
'If the CPI-M cannot mend relations with Dr Manmohan Singh, it may find that Congress boss Sonia Gandhi is still willing to talk.'
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
When land was allotted to PSUs in the past, care was taken to ensure this was wasteland - it makes sense to do the same for private industry today.
