"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 chief minister's letter will be reached to the dharna manch (dais) of the Trinamool Congress chief on the second day of her party's indefinite agitation at Singur demanding immediate return of 400 acres to farmers unwilling to part with their land. "The contents of the letter will be made known this afternoon," a source in the chief minister's secretariat said.
Supporting West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's stand, Mittal said, "Let us see for the next 7-10 years what Indian companies deliver and then we can take a call."
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday said he was surprised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement about the state government's "overall failure".
Shortly after scrapping the proposed IT township project -- Vedic Village -- at Rajarhat near Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said late on Wednesday that the two IT majors must be retained in the state, reports the Indian Express.
In the small-scale sector, the chief minister claimed to have created 12 lakh jobs.
Admitting that the police and administration had failed to rid Maoist menace in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that the ultras have to be tackled politically as it was done in 1977 when the Left Front came to power.
The Trinamool Congress will file a defamation suit against the Communist Party of India-Marxist and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for equating the party with the Maoists.
The compensation package for land acquisition decided by the West Bengal government is very generous, so why are the farmers protesting?
Standing by his denouncement of the ruling CPI(M)'s capture of Nandigram, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Sunday visited the troubled area on Sunday and said wrong-doers must not be exonerated and pitched for presence of CRPF for some more time.
On Monday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had rejected the chief minister's offer of talks and stuck to her demand for returning 400 acres of land to 'unwilling' sellers of land.
A slew of investment proposals in West Bengal, starting from agri-retail chain to petrochemicals, are likely to be discussed when Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani meets Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said the meeting lasted for about 30 minutes.
The Centre on Friday asked the Maoists in Lalgarh area of West Bengal to lay down arms and come for talks. Home Minister P Chidambaram said he endorsed the appeal of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the Maoists and the tribals to come for talks.
Billionaire L N Mittal, who runs the steel behemoth, is keen to set up a central office in Rajarhat near the city, for which the company has sought land from the state government, Bhattacharjee said in Kolkata, inaugurating the 36th World Congress on Housing Science.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday turned down the Trinamool Congress' demand that the land of the unwilling farmers at Singur, acquired for the Tata Motors small car project, should be returned.
The people of Singur feel they have lost their representative in the government who would plead the issue of fast-tracking the process of returning their land, which seems to be a distant reality, with the battle being fought in the courts.
He said the Sethusamudram project was being opposed by the Sangh Parivar on religious ground, but it was vital for economic development of the region.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee hit back at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for his comments that the buck stopped at his table on maintaining law and order in the state and asked him to "mind" his language. "Buck is the not the language of politicians. It is a slang. I will tell him to mind his language. I had asked him to tell the Opposition to cooperate with the government," Bhattacharjee told media-persons in Kolkata.
Bhattacharjee added that he regrets the March 14 police firing in Nandigram and said no government in a civilised country can send the police to kill people.
Virtually shielding higher officials from any blame, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that failure, if any, was at the camp level leadership when Maoists attacked Silda camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles in which 24 personnel were killed last month.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday said the Trinamool Congress was 'hand-in-glove' with Maoists and he had conveyed this to Home Minister P Chidambaram, who 'did not like it'. Bhattacharjee also underlined the need for the Centre and the states to join hands to fight the menace, without blaming each other. "Whenever I meet the home minister, I have been telling him that they (Trinamool Congress and Maoists) are working hand-in-glove," he said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Monday presided over the crucial party's politburo meeting in New Delhi to review the party's dismal performance in West Bengal and a close miss in Kerala polls.
West Bengal Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen, whose statement on Maoist links with the Trinamool Congress put the administration in an uncomfortable position, had more trouble on Tuesday, when a senior minister called for action against him for his remarks.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on Sunday gheraoed twice by relief seekers in the state's South 24 Parganas, the district worst-hit by cyclone Aila, even as the government prepared a memorandum seeking assistance of Rs 1,000 for submission to the Centre.The chief minister had gone to Gosaba in the Sunderbans to see the extent of the disaster and distribution of relief materials.
An important political milestone during the year was the return of the Left Front to power with an over two-thirds majority.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday put the onus on West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to give a reply to Home Minister P Chidambaram's letter which asked the government to disarm CPI-M cadres in the state. "The home minister has written to the state government. He has fulfilled his responsibility. Now the state government should fulfil its responsibility and reply by acknowledging receipt of the letter," he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 19 to discuss the demand for Rs 1000 crore for relief and restoration work in cyclone Aila-hit areas.
Trinamool Congress has refused to attend the all-party meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday, to seek suggestions for expediting relief work in cyclone-affected areas, dubbing the whole exercise as 'suspect'.The chief whip of the TC parliamentary party in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay told PTI that the whole exercise was 'suspect' as the meeting will take place so many days after the cyclone hit Bengal.
Adopting a more aggressive posture on the letter controversy, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday questioned how Home Minister P Chidambaram used "Trinamool Congress' language" in his missive but remained silent on the party's link with the Maoists.
Tyre major Dunlop India's main plant at Shahgunj near Kolkata would be re-opened on October 31, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Monday.
The state government's stand on land acquisition for industries and the Nandigram police firing on March 14 is understood to have figured at the meeting.
A poll update from Maharashtra's Nashik, where Raj Thackeray is on fire
In the wake of the joint operation against the Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, the chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, will meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 11. On the same day, he will have a separate meeting with the Union home minister P Chidambaram on the joint operation against the extremists in the state. Both the meetings are scheduled to be held in the morning.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed on Monday that he had got specific information on the Trinamool Congress' link with the Maoists and warned the party not to join hands with it to put the Communist Party of India-Marxist in trouble.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, once the poster boy of development for the Communist Party of India-Marxist, has come under fire in the party's latest 'rectification' campaign.
The district Congress has filed a complaint against West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee accusing him of making "provocative" speech at a public meeting in Coochbehar.
Speaking about fleet strength of the Indian Navy, Suthan said that it had a strength of about 150 ships, of which nearly 50 were in Eastern India.
The West Bengal chief minister did not have anything new to offer to Singur and its people, except that the site would be used for an industrial project.
In a repeat of Sunday's mob fury during West Bengal Chief Minister's visit to cyclone-hit Gosaba, hundreds of cyclone victims on Tuesday heckled and jeered at Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, as he came out of a relief camp in Hingalganj in North 24-Parganas district. "You are an inefficient chief minister. You deserve a garland of shoes. What have you done for the development of the Sunderbans in the last five years," the hungry victims shouted at Bhattacharjee.
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