It is high time that people of Singur realise the importance of both industrial and agricultural development, Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said today. “It is a pity that since the TMC came to power, no major industrial development has taken place in Hooghly district as well as the state,” he added.
The minister was speaking to media persons after inspecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting venue at Singur, where he is expected to address a public rally on 18 January after a similar meeting the preceding day at Malda. Before that, the minister visited Sahanapara village in the Singur area and distributed invitations for the Prime Minister’s meeting. He also spoke to several families there.
The BJP leader said, “Educated youth have no means of earning their livelihood in West Bengal.” He added, “70 per cent of the aborted Tata Nano project area till date lies as unproductive as it was when the project was abandoned in 2008. The ruling government neither developed agriculture nor industry at Singur.” The state government, however, claims that cultivation has resumed on 40 per cent of the 997 acres that had been alloted for the vehicle project.
Mazumdar urged the people of Singur to attend the Prime Minister’s public meeting in support of industrial development in Singur. He said once the BJP comes to power in the state, initiatives will be taken to bring back Tata and other industrial giants in Singur and Hooghly district so that employment is generated for unemployed youths.
Industries are there to see, says Manna: The state minister for panchayat and rural development, Becharam Manna, however, countered the BJP leader. saying: “When one travels from Kolkata-Howrah and proceeds along the Durgapur Expressway and the Delhi road, one can see that a large number of small and large-scale industries have come up on both sides of the highways.
“Mr Mazumdar is misleading and provoking the people of Singur with incorrect information. The people of Bengal are used to the ways of the BJP party; whenever elections are around, the entire BJP leadership comes over to Bengal asking for votes. But they return empty-handed. Hence, the visit of PM Modi makes no difference among the people of the district,” he said.
Responding to Mazumdar’s remarks, the CPM Hooghly district secretary Soumitra Chatterjee said, “The people of the country and the people of the state know very well that when elections are near, the entire BJP sets out in Bengal with false promises.”