LF's fingers crossed over Nayachar

The Left Front government is hoping that the central government won’t go back on its earlier position and issue environmental clearance for the proposed chemical hub at Nayachar.

The uncertainty over the fate of the proposed chemical hub arose after Mamata Banerjee, the minister of railways in the newly formed UPA government, said she would block the project.

Nirupam Sen, the industry minister of West Bengal, reminded that the project had already been given go ahead by the previous UPA government. He said, “It was given go ahead by the previous government. Since the UPA is in power again, I don’t think they would like to rescind their own decision.”

But at the same time he sounded a a note of caution, “So far, we have not received anything to the contrary. So, the work will continue at normal pace,” Sen observed. But though the state government is trying to put up a brave front on the issue, the party is not so sure about the fate of the project. After today’s state secretariat meeting of the CPIM, Shyamal Chakrabarty, one of their senior members, indicated that they were keenly watching the Centre's moves. Chakrabarty said that the UPA government had earlier cleared three chemical hubs in three states. West Bengal was one of them. “Now, it is to be seen if the clearance is withheld on environmental ground to West Bengal’s project alone or they will cancel all three projects,” says Chakrabarty.

West Bengal government’s proposed chemical hub at Nayachar is to be built by the Salim group of Indonesia. The estimated cost was pegged at around Rs.40, 000 crore. An MoU has already been signed to the effect between the state government and the Salim group.

The state government initially tried to locate this chemical hub at Nandigram, and official notification to acquire unspecified amount of farm land was served on the people of Nandigram in January, 2007. Close on the heels of the Singur agitation, this notification immediately triggered off a violent peasant movement in Nandigram. which eventually led to the present political and electoral disaster of the ruling Left and emergence of TMC as a major political force in the state. After retreating from Nandigram, the state government identified a river island Nayachar, where 10,000 acre of land was identified for the proposed chemical hub.