A day after the Trinamool Congress gave a seven-day ultimatum to the West Bengal government to return land at Singur to the "uwilling" farmers, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today asserted that it would not be returned but utilised to set up industry.
"Why are they (TC) opposing (the acquisition)? They are going to Singur and demanding that the land be returned. The land will not be returned. It was taken for industry and an industry will come up there," he said, addressing a mammoth Left Front rally here to kick off the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.
Just because the Tatas abandoned the small car project at Singur, it did not mean that no industry would come up there, Bhattacharjee said.
Stating that thousands of young people at Singur were looking up to the government for jobs, he said, "Many of them want the Tatas to come back. We must save Singur. We can't betray its people."
Reiterating that the government would go ahead in setting up a thermal power unit at Katwa in Burdwan district despite opposition over land acquisition issues, he said, "Those who are opposing the project must know that we will go ahead with it in the interest of the state."
