Teams to meet, Tatas advised to stand by
By INDRANIL GHOSH AND BARUN GHOSH
Calcutta, Sept. 3: Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has set the stage for talks between the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress at Raj Bhavan on Friday.
The government and Trinamul will be represented by two teams. Each team will hold separate, preliminary discussions with the governor tomorrow.
“I am hopeful about a solution coming out of the talks because both the chief minister and Ms Banerjee are sincere in their efforts to end the present stalemate,” Gandhi said this evening.
The governor disclosed that the Tatas have been advised to join the talks if needed — which was reported by The Telegraph on Wednesday.
Gandhi has written to Tata Motors. “I have advised the Tatas to be prepared to join the talks if there is an invitation from the state government. They have replied to me,” he said.
Sources said the governor’s letter was addressed to Ratan Tata. It is not clear if Tata, said to be reluctant to be part of a political process, will participate in the talks eventually.
But his intervention may be needed to retain the project in Bengal as the professional opinion in Tata Motors still favours the plant being shifted — articulated by yesterday’s stunning statement. A CNN-IBN text-message poll from across the country said 80 per cent of the respondents wanted the Tatas to pull out of Bengal.
The question of enlisting the presence of Bhattacharjee or Tata will arise only if Mamata decides to take part in the talks at any point.
The governor declined to say what his stand would be if Trinamul makes its demand for the return of 400 acres non-negotiable. “Let us not presuppose anything,” he said while leaving former finance minister Ashok Mitra’s house after a meeting.
Mitra, who regularly writes in The Telegraph, had said in his column last Friday that “it was time for a cooling of heads on all sides…”. He had said the holdings could not be returned for a practical reason (their scattered nature) but a way out could be found through offering more compensation and a share of the profit to the farming community.
In Singur, where a backlash against closing the plant gathered momentum, Mamata said she was optimistic about a solution. “We welcome the governor’s initiative to resolve the Singur impasse. I am hopeful the process will begin in a day or two,” she told cheering supporters.
Earlier, a statement from Raj Bhavan said: “The stalemate over Singur is exacting social costs of a high magnitude, apart from the investment costs and the implications on the polity.”
The statement stressed that the governor’s role will “not be that of a third-party mediator but that of the meeting’s chairperson”.
Before the statement was issued, the governor met Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee for nearly an hour.
Trinamul complained to the governor about yesterday’s statement from Tata Motors. Sources said an “uncomfortable” Gandhi wrote to the Tatas, with a copy to the state government, on the timing of the notice.
The Tatas are believed to have pointed out that they had run the draft past a senior government official who had initially sought to have its release postponed but later relented.(END) Source: The Telegraph
By INDRANIL GHOSH AND BARUN GHOSH
Calcutta, Sept. 3: Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has set the stage for talks between the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress at Raj Bhavan on Friday.
The government and Trinamul will be represented by two teams. Each team will hold separate, preliminary discussions with the governor tomorrow.
“I am hopeful about a solution coming out of the talks because both the chief minister and Ms Banerjee are sincere in their efforts to end the present stalemate,” Gandhi said this evening.
The governor disclosed that the Tatas have been advised to join the talks if needed — which was reported by The Telegraph on Wednesday.
Gandhi has written to Tata Motors. “I have advised the Tatas to be prepared to join the talks if there is an invitation from the state government. They have replied to me,” he said.
Sources said the governor’s letter was addressed to Ratan Tata. It is not clear if Tata, said to be reluctant to be part of a political process, will participate in the talks eventually.
But his intervention may be needed to retain the project in Bengal as the professional opinion in Tata Motors still favours the plant being shifted — articulated by yesterday’s stunning statement. A CNN-IBN text-message poll from across the country said 80 per cent of the respondents wanted the Tatas to pull out of Bengal.
The question of enlisting the presence of Bhattacharjee or Tata will arise only if Mamata decides to take part in the talks at any point.
The governor declined to say what his stand would be if Trinamul makes its demand for the return of 400 acres non-negotiable. “Let us not presuppose anything,” he said while leaving former finance minister Ashok Mitra’s house after a meeting.
Mitra, who regularly writes in The Telegraph, had said in his column last Friday that “it was time for a cooling of heads on all sides…”. He had said the holdings could not be returned for a practical reason (their scattered nature) but a way out could be found through offering more compensation and a share of the profit to the farming community.
In Singur, where a backlash against closing the plant gathered momentum, Mamata said she was optimistic about a solution. “We welcome the governor’s initiative to resolve the Singur impasse. I am hopeful the process will begin in a day or two,” she told cheering supporters.
Earlier, a statement from Raj Bhavan said: “The stalemate over Singur is exacting social costs of a high magnitude, apart from the investment costs and the implications on the polity.”
The statement stressed that the governor’s role will “not be that of a third-party mediator but that of the meeting’s chairperson”.
Before the statement was issued, the governor met Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee for nearly an hour.
Trinamul complained to the governor about yesterday’s statement from Tata Motors. Sources said an “uncomfortable” Gandhi wrote to the Tatas, with a copy to the state government, on the timing of the notice.
The Tatas are believed to have pointed out that they had run the draft past a senior government official who had initially sought to have its release postponed but later relented.(END) Source: The Telegraph
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