Yechury hopeful of solution to Singur deadlock

KOLKATA: CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury is hopeful that the committee formed to look into the possibility of identifying land for return to unwilling farmers at Singur will find a way-out in resolving the lingering crisis.

"I hope the committee will find a way-out to resolve the Singur problem in the interest of the development of the state," Yechury told reporters at the Kolkata airport on Thursday.

Yechury, who is scheduled to visit a private hospital to see an ailing CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu, is expected to discuss the Singur issue with senior leaders of the party at the party office during his stay here.

After Sunday's agreement to end the Singur impasse at Raj Bhavan, the issue appeared to be back to square one as the West Bengal government and the Tatas rejected change in the land pattern of the project while the Trinamool Congress insisted that 300 acres from the factory site be returned to farmers.

A four-member committee comprising district magistrate of Hooghly Neelam Meena and managing director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Subrata Gupta and two representatives of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, which inspected the project site yesterday, is scheduled to meet later in the day.