Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee reiterates stance on PCPIRs

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today reiterated her government's stand on the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment region (PCPIRs), a special project by the central government and said that she would never allow a chemical hub in Nandigram. Banerjee today addressed a mass gathering at Tekhali in Nandigram and asked the industrialists to submit "eco-friendly" investment proposals to the government.

“We will not allow chemical hub at Nayachar and Nandigram. We will discuss the issue with Parsun Mukherjee. We are contemplating an eco-friendly tourism hub here. We are also looking for new proposals for Nandigram ,” said Banerjee in the meeting today. Nandigram movement was one of the turning point in the history of political movements in Bengal.

Siginificantly, Mamata Banerjee government scrapped the Left Front government's proposal of setting up a chemical hub at Nayachar, immediately after she assumed office. However, later, the government decided to consider a new investment proposal from NKID group headed by NRI industrialist Prasun Mukherjee, who was also associated with the earlier project in association with the Salim group of Indonesia. At the end of 2011, Mukherjee met former Commerce and Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee and submitted a proposal to set up an eco-friendly project at Nayachar in East Midnapore district.

Apart from announcing several new projects for Nandigram, Banerjee today announced her party’s candidate for Nandigram too. “Subhendu Adhikari will be fielded in Nandigram. I want him to be in the cabinet,” she added. Adhikari has been Mamata’s lieutenant during Nandigram land movement; Adhikari is at present an MP from Tamluk in East Midnapore.

“I have never forgotten Nandigram. Singur-Nandigram have been milestones in my life.I can never forget the sacrifices made by people of Nandigram. We can never forget the atrocities in the name of sunrise. The atrocities carried out in Nandigram were a dark chapter in the history of Bengal. We will never allow them to repeat,’ adds Mamata Banerjee.