The issue of growing opposition to the plan of setting up a nuclear plant at Haripur also figured at the meeting, which was attended by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The leaders told the chief minister to cautiously deal with the project in the wake of Trinamool MP Sisir Adhikary’s threat to launch a Nandigram-like agitation in Haripur.

After the meeting, state Commerce and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen assured that there would be no problem in transferring the land to the Railway Board. “We want to talk to the Railway Board and the issue should be finalised,” said Sen.

On Tuesday, the Left Front government had agreed to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s proposal for setting the factory in Singur and said it would talk to the Tatas for getting back the land once an announcement is made by the Railways. This was followed by Railways writing back to the state government and expressing their readiness to set up the factory there. The Board, however, asked for a status report of the land and stated that 400 of the 997.11 acres should be returned to the “unwilling farmers”.

Though Tata Motors has pulled out from Singur, the land still belongs to the company as the state government had leased out the land to it on a long-term basis.

Sources in the party said both Sen and Bhattacharjee believe that the Tatas will return the land because they have already pulled out its small-car factory from Singur. “The question is how to settle the issue of returning the 400 acres of the land to the unwilling farmers,” said a CPM leader.

Earlier in the day, Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti said that the abandoned car factory site was not a disputed land.

On the issue of Haripur nuclear plant project, Sen said: “The state cannot decide where a nuclear power plant will come up. It is the Centre, which selects the site for such projects. If the Union government asks us to acquire the land, we will do so. But at the same time we will inform the Centre about the opinion of the locals,” said Sen.

‘No hurdle in getting back the 400 acres of land’
At a time when the state government has approved the setting up of a railway coach factory at Singur, the Singur Krishi Jiban O Jibika Banchao Committee — which is spearheading the agitation for farmers — feels getting back 400 acres of land from the Tata Group will not be a problem.

“There is more than 400 acres of land inside the Nano project area which has remained untouched. No construction activity has taken place on that land,” said Becharam Manna, convenor of the Committee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s pointsman in the area.

He was a part of the team that had earlier surveyed the land along with WBIDC chairman Subrata Gupta and the then Hooghly district magistrate. This was after the Trinamool and the government had signed a joint declaration in the presence of the Governor.

“When we surveyed the land, we identified more than 400 acres which were suitable to be returned to the farmers for agriculture. Unfortunately, the state government backed off,” said Manna. He will speak to Mamata Banerjee regarding the matter on Friday.