Willing to talk to Tatas on Singur: Mamata Banerjee

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said she was ready to discuss the issue out of court with the Tatas.

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she was willing to talk to the Tata Group, if the company was willing to set up the plant on 600 acres in Singur.

"Court proceedings are on over the issue," she said referring to the state government's appeal against a Calcutta High Court order nullifying an Act to take over the land back from Tata Motors in Singur, which shifted its factory to Sanand in Gujarat following a prolonged agitation seeking return of 400 acres to the unwilling farmers.

Banerjee said she was ready to discuss the issue out of court with the Tatas.

"I am willing to talk. They can set up a plant on 600 acres of land at Singur," she told a vernacular news channel.

Banerjee, whose party rode to success in the 2011 state Assembly elections largely on land acquisition issues at Nandigram and Singur, said she was committed to give back 400 acres of land to unwilling farmers out of the 1,000 acres acquired by the then Left Front government in 2007 for the Tata Motors' Nano car factory.

When asked about the stalled Infosys project at Rajarhat New Town on the outskirts of the city, the West Bengal Chief Minister said "I am against SEZs, but am ready to offer a different package."

Denying that her land policy was being an hindrance to setting up of new industries in the state, Banerjee said "we have 1,05,000 acres of land at our disposal, my government has set up a land bank."