West Bengal Fisheries Minister Kironmoy Nanda who belongs to the Socialist Party said that the project would cause damage to fisheries spread across 250 hectare there being run by fishermen cooperatives.
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.
Locals -- more so in the area broadly called Nandigram lying across the minor Haldi River from Haldia -- fear a fresh round of land acquisition, as the state government pushes ahead with its petroleum, chemical and petrochemical investment region plans with Indian Oil Corporation and Calc Refinery Ltd as its anchor tenants. The PCPIR is one of the Left Front government's showcase projects in its efforts to accelerate growth in the state.
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.
The West Bengal government has not given up industrialisation of the state, including finalising an alternate project for Singur, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said.
Sixteen more bodies were found during search operations on Monday, taking the toll to 41 in the trawler capsize mishap near Talpatty island in the Hooghly river in South 24 Parganas district. "Sixteen more bodies were recovered, but the toll is likely to rise as there is a possibility of recovering more bodies," said South 24 Parganas District Magistrate N S Nigam.
Unitech had 40 per cent stake in NKID, which has been acquired by the Salim group and Universal Success. Sources said NKID was now a 50:50 partnership between these two; earlier, Salim had a 40 per cent stake and Universal had 20 per cent. Asked why Unitech quit NKID, the former's managing director, Ajay Chandra, said, "I have no comments on this."
It's clear why Nayachara is the place now being favoured by the West Bengal government. Besides being sparsely populated (700-odd according to the highest government estimates), this is a community that is not "supposed to be here" and, therefore, presumably easy to shift out.
'Now that there is an election in the offing, she is repeating the same old promises. Does she think the people of Bengal are fools to fall for her lies?'
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