Bengal minister favours negotiation with Tatas on Singur

Days after the Calcutta High Court struck down the Singur Land Act, a minister in the West Bengal government on Monday said he saw no harm in opening talks with the Tatas to resolve the impasse. Agriculture minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya said, "My personal opinion is that there is no harm in negotiating with the Tatas.. We had talked in this line before... they (Tatas) do their work on 600 acres and return 400 acres to the farmers."

Bhattacharya, an MLA from Singur, said, "Our fight is not with the Tatas. Our purpose is to protect interests of the affected farmers." He denied that the Singur farmers were frustrated and claimed they had not deviated from the path of movement "though they have resentment and sorrows in their mind".

The revived Krishi jami Raksha committee, which had spearheaded the Singur agitation, would continue its movement to protect farmers' rights, the minister said adding, however, their movement would be on "Gandhian line of non-violence".