Buddha retracts on SEZ land

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Tuesday the Nandigram agitation had been handled badly. ?It happened because of our mistake. We must talk to every villager and in every panchayat. The map (of the proposed SEZ) will not be finalized before we get opinion of the villagers. Of course, I will also go there,? a candid chief minister said. He also said that acquisition would be kept in abeyance till normalcy and peace return in Nandigram.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Tuesday the Nandigram agitation had been handled badly. “It happened because of our mistake. We must talk to every villager and in every panchayat. The map (of the proposed SEZ) will not be finalized before we get opinion of the villagers. Of course, I will also go there,” a candid chief minister said. He also said that acquisition would be kept in abeyance till normalcy and peace return in Nandigram.

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The chief minister also admitted that a notice issued by the Haldia Development Authority identifying the mouzas to be acquired had angered the people of Nandigram. “It was a big blunder and the principal cause of the mayhem that followed,” he observed and said that he had asked the District Magistrate to scrap the notification. Only on Monday, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose had said that the HDA had issued no such notification.

Tuesday indeed turned out to be the day of enlightenment for the CPI(M) and the state government. Hours after the chief minister candidly admitted the mistakes of his administration, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose tendered an unconditional apology to Medha Patkar after she threatened to file a defamation case against him.

Biman had alleged on Monday, that the blueprint of the militant resistance struggle in Nandigram had been hatched inside a four-storeyed house in Sonachura and even Medha Patkar attended one such meeting.
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