Haripur, in East Midnapore district of West Bengal, is not just the proposed site for a nuclear plant to be set up with help from Russia.
Haripur, in East Midnapore district of West Bengal, is not just the proposed site for a nuclear plant to be set up with help from Russia. It has become the new political battleground for the Left Front, the Congress and the Trinamool. Each party is trying to exploit the Haripur issue to serve their political interests.
For the Left Front, the Trinamool's objection towards setting up the plant is the new weapon to create a rift between the Congress and the Trinamool. For Trinamool, Haripur is the ideal ground for continuing a "Singur & Nandigram" type agitation against farmland acquisition.
Caught in a fix between a commitment with another country and a political alliance with Trinamool, the Congress is trying its best to convince railways minister Mamata Banerjee to refrain from making Haripur a political issue. The job of persuading Banerjee fell on Congress' troubleshooter-in-chief and Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. He met her for an hour on Sunday to coax her out of it.
Sources in the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) said Mukherjee assured Mamata that the nuclear plant would not be set up at the cost of the livelihood of locals.
"Mukherjee told Mamata that all her demands on the compensation and rehabilitation package would be honoured. But his only request was that Mamata should not make the nuclear plant a political issue and play into the hands of the CPI(M)," the WBPCC leader said.
Despite such assurances, Subhendu Adhikari, the Trinamool MP from Tamluk in East Midnapore, has continued to voice his opposition to the nuclear plant. Adhikari said the plant would destroy multi-crop lands and water bodies in Haripur. "We don't support the nuclear plant because it will endanger all these things," Adhikary said. The MP believes the CPI(M) has misled the Centre on the issue.
However, CPI(M) central committee member, Md Selim, said, "The experts chose Haripur after thoroughly examining all aspects. We are supporting it, as we are in favour of development."
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