Two frontal organisations of the beleaguered CPM started a march of 10,000 people from Singur on Wednesday to protest against the Mamata Banerjee government’s alleged failure to deliver on her promise of making 995 acres of land here suitable for cultivation.
The procession, organised by the All India Kisan Sabha and the All India Agriculture Workers Union, started from Ratanpur in Singur at 11am and continued on the south-bound flank of the Durgapur Expressway.
It ended at Dankuni at 5.30pm for the day.
The march will resume from Bally at 11am on Thursday and proceed to Rani Rashmoni Avenue in Calcutta.
The land had been taken over to set up a factory of Tata Motors before the project was abandoned in 2008 because of protests spearheaded by the Trinamul Congress.
Anti-Mamata slogans filled the air as the leaders got busy calling the Trinamul government’s “bluff”.
Subhash Mukhopadhyay, the state president of the Citu, the CPM’s labour arm, said: “Last week, the agriculture minister claimed in the Assembly that 955 out of 995 acres had been made cultivable. You see by yourself whether the claim is right.”
The march can be billed as the most visible political activity by any Left party or its affiliates since the change of guard in Bengal in 2011.
“The turnout was impressive. People came from all South Bengal districts. But we don’t know what its political impact will be,” said a CPM insider.
