Mamata Banerjee slams Left Front over forcible land acquisition

KOLKATA - Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has slammed the Left front Government over the forcible acquisition of land in West Bengal.

Addressing a rally near Rajarhat, she said: “”Land scams have taken place in a big way at Rajarhat where the CPI (M)-led Left Front government had forcibly acquired acres after acres by torturing farmers. It is time now that I launch agitations here the way I spearheaded movements at Singur, Nandigram and Suchpur to uphold farmers’ rights.”

“Land scams will be probed case by case if Trinamool Congress comes to power in the next Assembly polls in the state … This (Left Front) government should be nailed for speculating on land,” Banerjee added.

Banerjee also alleged that the state government in the pretext of developing the area into an industrial town forcibly took away 25,000-acres of agricultural farmland from the farmers which mostly belonged to the minority and backward classes.

Banerjee also alleged that there was no public notification about allocation of land from a minister’s quota at Rajarhat.

TMC leader Sougata Roy said that the Left front Government has grabbed lands for their own benefit.

“Land of the farmers have been taken at throw away prices and these are being sold to big industrialists at high prices. Thus, giving the government and their supported land sharks a big deal. So, the purpose of the rally is to highlight how injustice has been done to the farmers in this whole area,” said Roy.

The state government’s Housing and Industrial Development Corporation (HIDCO) had acquired large tracts of land in the Rajarhat-Newtown area to set up a satellite township. (ANI)