ye kya ho rha hai .......... gift hai ya cheating

Railway connectivity, Mamata's gift to Nandigram

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday inaugurated a project for laying 17 km of railway tracks in West Bengal's Nandigram and promised jobs or houses to those whose land may be acquired for the project.

'The 17-km long railway track will connect Nandigram with Deshapran railway station in East Midnapore district. The railway track construction work would be completed within one-and-a-half years. The project has already been sanctioned and tenders issued for the first phase.

'If we get the required land early, we might finish the project within one year also,' Banerjee told the gathering, adding that her ministry will provide proper compensation to seven families in Nandigram whose land will be acquired for the project.

She said: 'We will build houses or get them jobs in the Indian Railways, if we find it necessary.'

Banerjee also promised rail connectivity in the near future to Nandigram's adjoining Khejuri area.

'We have a plan to connect both Nandigram and Khejuri with the neighbouring Haldia township and with the rest of India. A computerised ticket reservation counter will also be set up in Nandigram next month,' the minister said.

She said two stations between Nandigram and Deshapran would be named after freedom fighter Matangini Hazra and Martyr's Station respectively.

'We'll dedicate the Martyr's Station to those villagers who lost lives in the struggle against the state administration to save their farmland. The railways will also set up an archive at the Martyr's Station,' Banerjee added.

Banerjee's Trinamool Congress had led a successful peasants' agitation in Nandigram against a proposed chemical hub project of the state government in 2007-08. Irked over the state government's bid to acquire large tracts of agricultural land for the project, the farmers joined Banerjee's movement in large numbers and finally the communist regime was forced to scrap the proposed chemical hub.

The success of the Nandigram movement as also similar protests against the Nano project in Singur - that ultimately forced Tata Motors to shift the Nano plant to Sanand in Gujarat - acted as an elixir for Banerjee's party, which had been badly mauled in the 2006 Assembly polls. The agitations reversed the state's electoral script and since then the Trinamool and its associates have won a series of polls.