With half-a-dozen assured portfolios in the Union Cabinet, apart from the Railways for herself, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee returned home today amid a riotous welcome at the Kolkata airport by party workers and supporters. Some of the newly-elected Trinamool MPs also accompanied the new Railways Minister.

While Banerjee had announced cheap passes for the poor immediately after she took the oath in Delhi, her party leaders back home in Bengal seemed all charged-up, vowing to turn the heat on the West Bengal government to scrap the proposed the Nayachar chemical SEZ and begin fresh agitation in Singur for the return of 400 acres of land.

“We are sticking to our stand of opposing the chemical SEZ in Nayachar. We will not let SEZ happen. There will be environmental problems,” said Sisir Adhikary, the MP from Contai who is expected to get a portfolio.

“We are working on a plan to develop Nandigram, Digha, Nayachar, Haldia and others areas of East Midnapore. We are going to develop tourism in these places. However, we are all going to sit with Mamata Banerjee and set up development plan for West Bengal. As opposed to atrocities and forcible land acquisition by the ruling CPM government, our development plan will be pro-people,” added Adhikary.

Sources said Banerjee is scheduled to hold a meeting next week to discuss the fresh development plan for Bengal, which will likely have a dose of sops from the Railways.

The Trinamool is also gearing up for a renewed agitation in Singur to demand the return of 400 acres of land to unwilling farmers. Becharam Manna, the saha-sabhadhipati of Singur panchayat who is spearheading the campaign against the state government there, along with new MP Ratna De Nag, who won from Hooghly, is planning fresh agitations.

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