All-party meet doomed by Trinamool absence

The all-party meet to resolve the Singur issue appeared to be doomed to failure as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will be away in New Delhi, to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, seeking Central intervention for the implementation of the September 7 agreement between her party and the West Bengal government on the Singur land issue.

In contrast, the all party meeting on the Singur issue called by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee on September 30 was expected to resolve the Singur issue, members of the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce (MCC) were told by Sitaram Yechury, Member of Parliament (MP) and Politburo member of CPI(M).

Banerjee would submit papers to the UPA chairperson on the agreement that provides for return of maximum land from within the Tata Motors car project site at Singur to "unwilling" land-losers, signed in the presence of governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at Raj Bhavan on September 7.

"We have been demanding implementation of the agreement, but the government is not doing it," she said.

Banerjee said that she would also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after he returned from abroad and the president on the Singur issue. "We will also meet leaders of other political parties in the country," she said.

She ruled out attending the all-party meeting as nothing short of the implementation of the agreement would be acceptable to her party. Banerjee said "agents of the CPI-M" were trying to mislead people using the party meeting on the Singur issue. Her party would attend the meeting only if it discussed the technicalities of the agreement and not to discuss any package.

She alleged that the state government was trying to promulgate prohibitory orders in Singur during the Puja festival. "It will be counterproductive, if the government resorts to such a measure," she warned.