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Mamata formally withdraws dharna at Singur

Source:PTI
September 08, 2008 08:35 IST

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday night formally announced suspension of the 15-day indefinite dharna, saying a final agreement has been arrived at by the West Bengal government on the Singur issue.

"Since the government has found a formula for the solution of the Singur issue officially, I am suspending the dharna," she said from the dharna manch, addressing a big gathering of cheering party supporters.

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She said the workers of Tata Motors should join duty. "We have not done anything to prevent them from going to work. Let them join work."

She thanked Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi for his personal efforts to resolve the deadlock and also the West Bengal government.

"We hope that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will take more initiative to return land to farmers," she said.

"We want the (Tata Motors) factory to come up. We want industry to flourish and at the same farmers should be able to smile." she added.

There was a smear campaign to dub her party as anti-development and anti-industry, which, she said was far from the truth. "The truth is that we want both industry and agriculture to go side by side and not at the cost of one another."

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She thanked Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, who had attended the first day's dharna, and social activist Medha Patkar for lending support to her agitation.

She also paid homage to the memory of Tapasi Malik and the farmers who had died at Singur.

"It is a complete win. A big victory for us," an ecstatic Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee told a cheering crowd of party supporters.

"A total of 400 acres will be returned by the government -- 300 acres within the project and 100 acres outside. We have been able to make the government commit in writing to provide a maximum of land within the project area and the rest in adjacent areas as early as possible," she said.

"It is a victory for farmers and I am happy that the farmers will get back their land," Banerjee said after Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi announced that consensus had been reached between her party and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Source: PTI
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