The government’s search for a solution has acquired extreme urgency given the overall deep freeze that has set in as far as industrial investment in the state goes. Consider the following:

• The Barasat-Raichak Expressway, a multi-lane highway that was to connect the Kolkata airport with the Haldia port, is on hold. The projected investment in this and other related projects along it was estimated at Rs 40,000 crore over a period of 10 years by the Indonesia-based Salim Group. In villages in the North and South 24 Parganas districts, adjoining Kolkata, through which this expressway has been planned, the CPM was defeated in panchayat after panchayat emboldening the Trinamool Congress to step up its resistance.

• The same reverses had been witnessed in Singur, too. All village panchayats (lowest tier) and the panchayat samitis (the middle tier) were won by the Trinamool Congress. The poll setback came close on the heels of the party’s organizational set-up disintegrating after the arrest of Suhrid Dutta, the CPM’s zonal committee secretary last year, for his alleged involvement in the murder of Tapasi Malik, a Singur girl involved in the protest movement. Dutta is facing trial.

• Earlier, the chemical hub in Nandigram was abandoned in the face of violent protests. Although there is talk of relocating the chemical hub to Nayachar, top bureaucrats say it has been put on the backburner considering the huge investment and environmental clearances involved.

• A giant power plant planned in Katwa in Burdwan district had to be shelved because of protests over land acquisition.

... contd.