Land acquisition issues in Bengal now over: chief minister

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday said the land acquisition issues at Singur town in Hooghly district (where Tata Motors' Nano plant was originally to come up) is now a ''forgotten chapter''.

Bhattacharjee was addressing a number of industrial leaders at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Council Meeting in Kolkata.

Asked if land acquisition issues are posing as a major hurdle to industrialisation in West Bengal, Bhattacharjee said, ''Singur is a forgotten chapter because post-Singur, in West Bengal, 6,000 acres of land has already been acquired in Purulia, Burdwan, North 24 Parganas through voluntary submission of land for development purpose.''

The Singur land is on a 90-year lease agreement to the Tata Motors. But the Nano project itself was shifted to Sanand in Gujarat in 2008 following opposition in Singur.

Answering industry apprehensions about Maoist activities in the state, the chief minister assured that the government is putting all political and administrative efforts to contain the concern to the border areas of the state. However, he expressed his concern over the issue of inter-state border spillover of the Maoist activity in the country, and urged all the affected state to put up a concerted effort against this problem.

Talking about the state's economy, Bhattacharjee said agricultural retail marketing will receive a major boost from the West Bengal government. He added that the West Bengal government is ready to give a gradual consideration to the agricultural retail marketing, which has so far has not received much government encouragement in the state.