Gogoi blames Buddha for Singur - Assam not keen on Nano relocation, says CM

NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, Sept. 22: The Tatas are welcome in Assam, but without the Nano. Claiming that the Left Front government in West Bengal was responsible for the Singur crisis in Hooghly district, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today said his state was not interested in offering land for manufacturing Nano. The Tatas have formally notified the West Bengal government that if the crisis in Singur is not resolved, the industry giant will shortly begin to look for options to get the Nano rolling. "Unless I have the land, how can I invite him for the Nano project? No, we don't want the Nano project," Gogoi said. Assam has already had a bitter experience of people's opposition to construction of a hotel and the Nano project would invite problems like eviction and rehabilitation, the chief minister said. To attract investors to the Northeast, the Centre has a Northeast Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy that offers tax sops to willing corporates. Gogoi claimed to have told West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a few years ago that the rehabilitation problem was likely to arise because of the small car project. "But he said that people of West Bengal want big industry; now he has a problem. It is the West Bengal government's fault," the chief minister told journalists on the sideline of a news conference. Assam government has acquired a 750-acre project where a Tata-run educational institution will come up. The government has acquired 2,000 acres of land for a Knowledge Park with the people's consent. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has already invested in the northeastern state. Gogoi said he would meet the Tatas soon to discuss the company's investment and added that the Mahindras were also ready to invest in Assam. The chief minister was in New Delhi to meet officials of the 13th Finance Commission and seek the Centre's help on problems of erosion and floods in the Brahmaputra that have become a perennial problem for the state. Gogoi has termed erosion as a bigger problem than floods and demanded a special package.