People's Democracy

THE MOTOR VEHICLES FACTORY  WILL COME UP AT SINGUR: BUDDHADEB

B Prasant

THE Singur motor vehicles factory, sprouting of illogical and anti-people opposition notwithstanding, from whatever quarters, would be completed as per schedule.  More than 75 per cent of the work has already been completed.

This was the firm assurance of Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the people of Bengal and elsewhere.  Buddhadeb was addressing a packed gathering at the spacious Mahajati Sadan hall in downtown Kolkata during the evening of August 5.

Buddhadeb threw a challenge to the likes of the Trinamulis, SUCI, 'Maoists', and the various splinters of Naxalites and stated that land was acquired at Singur over the guidelines available with the central government. The land acquired on which a factory was in its final run was not a piece of garment that could be 'returned to the shop from where they were purchased' as excess and compensation asked for.

Singur is presently in the throes of a great developmental upheaval with thousands of people working day and night to ensure that the deadline for the marketing of the vehicle to be produced was met squarely and fairly.  There was no deception involved and the state Left Front government was quite determined that the factory would be complete in good time.  This has also been the general view of the entrepreneurs involved.

More than six thousand youth would get immediate, perennial employment the day the factory starts production. 'Shall we,' asked Buddhadeb,' play ducks-and-drakes with their future?'  'Shall we go and deceive the people, the unemployed, the poor people, after having roused the flame of hope in them?'  'Nothing of this sort would be allowed to happen as long as a pro-people Left Front government was in office, and this I would like to assure the people,' declared the chief minister.

It has always been the moral responsibility of the Left Front government to take up the responsibility of appropriate rehabilitation for those who have given up their land parcels to the state government for it to acquire at Singur.  Those who shed crocodile's tears for the 'kisans,' should keep in mind that with land being under increasing pressure of population, the sons and daughters of the kisans, too, needed the project to carve niches of employment, gainful employment in the days and months and years to come.  History shall never absolve those who stand against this employment-generating project that would change the industrial and developmental scenario in Singur in particular and the entire district of Hooghly and beyond, in general.

With employment a priority, the state LF government, said Buddhadeb, 'has been engaged in stressing on the manufacturing industries that are labour-intensive.'  'We have also brought up industrial units all over south and north Bengal some under joint venture (JV), some under built-operate-transfer (BOT) mode, and some in the state sector and some in the private sector.  The industrial scene in Bengal is going through a sea change - and for the betterment of the people, the youth, and the unemployed in particular.'  

The Bengal opposition -- an irresponsible, anti-people, destruction-oriented anti-Communist opposition -- is bent upon setting the economy back, charged Buddhadeb.  In this they would not succeed as the people would foil their attempts to disrupt development.  

Buddhadeb's sane advice to the opposition was that it is for them to decide and set their minds on constructive talks with the state LF government, and let go of the unreal, unwanted elements that they are found clinging to while seeking every excuse to ensure that talks with the state government would not succeed.