Mamata Banerjee skips singur farmers meet

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday skipped a meeting of her party's peasants wing at Singur even though she got maximum political dividend from her Singur agitation in removing CPIM-led government from power in 2011.

Newly formed Paschimbanga Kishan Khetmazoor Trinamool Congress (PBKKTMC) has organised it's first state conference at Singur. The two-day conference has started on Saturday. The leader of the PBKKTMC and Mamata's Singur hero, Becharam Manna told ET on Saturdaythat he had invited the chief minister to attend the first conference of the farmers. "But the chief minister did not turn up on Saturday because of her preoccupations," Manna said.

There has been a strong resentment among the Singur farmers over chief minister's decision of not attending the conference. "We have lost almost everything to support Mamata Banerjee's struggle at Singur. We had opposed vehemently the CPIM-led government attempt to grab land at gunpoint at Singur to enable the Tatas to set up their car factory.

We were promised by Mamata Banerjee about return of our land which the previous government had taken from us forcibly. But we are yet to get the land as legal cases are pending before the Supreme Court. We now feel that chief minister is not with us. She does not b other to visit Singur which had helped her a lot to strengthen her land movement," laments a Singur farmer who preferred anonymity as he fears attack on him by the ruling party activists once he reveals his identity.

It is a fact that Mamata Banerjee is not a frequent visitor to Singur specially after she became the chief minister. In the past three years, the chief minister did not pay a single visit to Singur. She visited the place for the last time on November 30, 2012. Before that she had gone to Singur on September 27, 2011. But in the last three years, Mamata Banerjee did not pay any visit to Singur and her lack of interests about Singur farmers has raised questions among her own party leaders.