Facing a stiff challenge to stem the decline of the Left Front in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday asserted that the alternative to the Left's rule was anarchy and asked supporters not to be demoralised by the success of the opposition."Change for what, anarchy? West Bengal is in no mood to fall behind. We want to move ahead in agriculture, industry, education, health, human development. Is there any substitute to it," Bhattacharjee said.
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.
"This is applicable for the entire country, all states and we have accepted it. But how to implement it is the government's business," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told media persons after a cabinet meeting in Kolkata.
A parallel meeting called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Friday rejected the West Bengal government's offer for talks on the Darjeeling issue on June 18, saying the agenda of development of the hills was "irrelevant" when the main issue was a separate state of Gorkhaland.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"I own up responsibility for the lapses in Nandigram on behalf of the state government. I don't want any more deaths."
The postman used to be a joy to behold when he knocked on the door for he brought news. These days, the postman knocks on the door fewer times, and when he does, he brings the letter late, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Germany is keen on investing in specific areas in West Bengal as part of a bid to strengthen Indo-German bilateral ties.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted on Thursday that there was a definite lack of alertness on the part of the forces leading to the massacre of 24 jawans by Maoists in West Midnapore district.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has announced that 10 per cent reservation in jobs would be given to socially, educationally and economically backward Muslims.
The West Bengal government has denied before the Supreme Court all allegations regarding the reported excesses committed by the state administration in Nandigram where 14 people were killed in police firing in March last year.
"Bhattacharjee has said his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi is a fundamentalist, but what is he doing here? He hounded Taslima out of the city to get Muslim votes in the coming Panchayat polls in the state," the Magsaysay award winning writer told a press conference in Kolkata on Wednesday.
He told the state party conference that West Bengal now stood at the crossroads and there was no prior model for industrialisation available to it.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contention that capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal has made Left Front partners aghast.
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.
"We cannot squander away the Rs 1,50,000 crore investment proposals. We have to generate employment for our young generations," Bhattacharjee told a district conference of the Communist Party of India - Marxist.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said the meeting lasted for about 30 minutes.
Saying the CPI-M has nuked the farmers in Nandigram and the UPA government, LK Advani says the NDA will raise the Nandigram issue in Parliament.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has moved away from the people and the image of the party has dented as evident from the recent election results, including that to the Lok Sabha, according to senior party leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The ruling Left Front constituents and opposition parties in West Bengal on Tuesday hailed the Calcutta High Court order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the death of Rizwanur Rehman, who married the daughter of a Hindu industrialist.
"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.
In view of the recent attacks on its agri retail stores, the Reliance Industries group company on Tuesday said it will go slow on the roll out of Reliance Fresh outlets in the state.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday said he had called Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata and urged him to resume work at Singur.
Tata's Nano project sinks back into crisis. While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee hinted at reviving her agitation at Singur, the Left Front came down heavily on her demand that ancillary units be shifted across the highway opposite to the project site.
Asked about rumours that the Chief Minister was holding talks with key investors on the Singur controversy, Dhoot said, "The CM calls me every three months to know the progress. The Videocon group was hopeful of land acquisition with its compensation package which includes land price, job assurance and equity in the project.
In a sharp deviation from his party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday described gheraos, the practice of disrupting work by intimidating managements, as "illegal and immoral" and said he was opposed to bandhs, or full-scale closure of state services.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for claiming that she was taking her job as railway minister lightly and said it was he who did not have "vision" for setting up the small car project at Singur.
The opposition's hue and cry over Singur and Nandigram would not adversely affect investment prospects in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Saturday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is the sixth day that Parliament has been disrupted.
Underscoring the importance of industrialisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Tuesday its pace would have to be increased to match the flow of investment, both from domestic and foreign ones.
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