The Hindu Business Line : It would be a setback if Tatas leave Singur: Pranab

BERHAMPORE (West Bengal): If the Tatas were forced to leave Singur, the site of small car project, it would be a setback to industrialisation, the External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday.

“If a company like Tata leaves Singur, it would be a setback to industrialisation,” Mr Mukherjee said here. “I hold that there is no conflict between agriculture and industry,” he said.

“I think that the transition from agriculture to industry is a process for the forward movement for civilisation, and if anyone wants to turn the wheels of progress back, it is going against historical necessity,” he said.

Mr Mukherjee had said yesterday that the Centre had no scope for intervention in Singur row.

“It would mean return to the old 'licence Raj era'. The Centre cannot say on where investments would go.”

The Trinamool Congress has been demanding return of 300 acres of land from the project site to be returned to unwilling land-losers and 100 acres from outside, while Chief Minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has offered 70 acres within the project and an enhanced compensation package, both for those who willingly gave their land and those who were unwilling. - PTI

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