WB govt should hold unconditional talks: Cong

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government should hold unconditional talks with the Trinamool Congress on the question of 400 acres at Singur.

State Congress leader Pradip Bhattacherjee told a press conference here that state government should not put any precondition before talks by ruling out the return of 400 acres and it should hold dialogue with an 'open mind'.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, now on a dharna outside the Tata Motors car plant has demanded that 400 acres be returned to the farmers unwilling to part with their land and that the small car project be set up on 600 acres.

"We have supported in principle the on-going dharna," Bhattacherjee said and added that the party had no plan to send any representative to the dharna manch to express solidarity.

Holding

the state government responsible for the present situation, he said things would not have come to such a pass had it tried to redress farmer's grievances in the initial period while land was being acquired for the factory.

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