Mamata welcomes Tata investment in Bengal

Soon after the Supreme Court set aside the land acquisition for the Tata's Nano project in West Bengal's Singur, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who hailed the development and said she wept tears of joy on hearing it, on Wednesday welcomed the group's investments in the state.

"Tatas are involved in many projects in Bengal. We are working with them in panchayats and many housing projects," said Banerjee, adding that many tenders were awarded to Tatas when she was the Railways Minister.

"If they come, we will welcome them," she said.

Incidentally, Tata Sons' Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry had recently said: "We look for the opportunity to invest in Bengal. When the opportunity does come, we look at that actively."

However, in the same breath, he also said that the opportunities have to show themselves.

"And when they do, irrespective of the political environment, we will make the decision to invest," Mistry had said.

On Wednesday, Banerjee said: "We do not deprive anybody. I repeatedly appealed to them to build the plant on 600 acres of land which was given by willing farmers and return 400 acres to unwilling farmers. Now we will go by the law."

Welcoming the verdict, Singur legislator Rabindranath Bhattacharya however said: "Tatas and other industrialists are welcome" in Singur.

"We welcome Tatas and any other industrialists in Singur, if they are willing to go for a fresh agreement with the state government and take lands from farmers who are willing to give it," he said.

--IANS

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