The Hindu Business Line : Bengal CM seeks CBI inquiry on woman's death

What they say
"The Chief Minister should set aside his ego and take a decision to return 500 acres forcibly acquired to farmers within 24 hours," Ms Mamata Banerjee said.
Too many bandhs at short intervals does not auger well for the State, its people or its economy, said Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Kolkata , Dec. 19

While firmly ruling out relocation of any industrial project in the State whose site had been identified, including the Tata small car project in Singur, the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, today said the State Government would request the Centre to order a CBI inquiry into the murder of 18-year-old Tapasi Malik in Singur yesterday. Subsequently, the State Home Secretary is understood to have officially written to the Union Government in this regard.

Yesterday, the Trinamool Congress leader, Ms Mamata Banerjee, had demanded a CBI probe into the incident.

Incidentally, mapping and survey work at the small car project site at Singur has already begun.

Tapasi was burnt to death in the wee hours of Monday morning inside the fenced-off area that has been acquired for the Tata small car project.

Meanwhile, according to agencies, Ms Banerjee issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Chief Minister to return the acquired farmland for the Tata project. She said if this were done there would be no need for the 48-hour strike called by her party from December 21.

"The Chief Minister should set aside his ego and take a decision to return 500 acres forcibly acquired to farmers within 24 hours," Ms Banerjee told presspersons at the site of her hunger strike which entered the sixteenth day today. In that case, her party-led Save Farmland Committee, which has given the strike call on December 21 and 22, would not go ahead with the shutdown, she said.

Addressing newspersons here today, the West Bengal Chief Minister said the enquiry into the death of the woman being conducted by the State Criminal Investigation Department would run parallel to the CBI probe.

Mr Bhattacharjee reiterated his request to Ms Banerjee to call off her agitation and withdraw the 48-hour bandh that she has called from December 21. He said too many bandhs at short intervals did not auger well for the State, its people or its economy.

Total land

According to the State Government, the total land required for the project was 997.11 acres. The total consent received was for 954 acres. This included 34 acres of government/vested land and 920 acres for which consent has been received. The State Government has already paid Rs 85 crore to 9,500 people. The process of receiving consent letters and making payment was continuing.

Meanwhile, Mr Subhas Chakraborty, West Bengal's Minister for Transport, has criticised the 48-hour bandh. He said the State administration would ensure that public transport services were operated normally.

Agencies add: The West Bengal Government today said that Tapasi Malik was set on fire while she was alive, but was not raped. The Home Secretary, Mr Prasad Ranjan Roy, told presspersons that the woman was set on fire yesterday while she was still alive. "In the post-mortem report, there is no evidence of rape," he added.

The All-India Forward Bloc, a constituent of the Left Front in West Bengal, has sought better compensation for Singur farmers whose land has been acquired for the Tata car plant. The party has suggested that the farmers should get shares of the company.

Compensation

"Whatever shares the Tata company will issue, a minimum of 100 of them of Rs 10 face value may be given to farmers whose land had been acquired to set up the Tata Motors small car project at Singur,'' the State AIFB Secretary, Mr Ashok Ghosh, told presspersons here. This, he felt, would ease the situation at Singur, whose farmers were getting a higher compensation package than that offered in other parts of the country for acquiring land for industrial projects, he said.

During the day, traffic in north and south Kolkata came to a standstill as Trinamool Congress women supporters took to the streets today. Hundreds of women protestors, drawn from the Trinamool Congress-led `Krishi Jami Bachao Committee' lay down on roads, including the arterial Chittaranjan Avenue connecting north and south Kolkata, bringing traffic to a halt.

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