New Town, Rajarhat will have a new name from October 1: Jyoti Basu Nagar. A children’s park is also being named after the former chief minister whose statue will also occupy a pride of place in the township. Announcing this on Wednesday, state housing minister Gautam Deb said, “A programme will be organised on October 1 to make the occasion memorable. Chief minister and senior Left Front leaders will be present. I will also invite Mamata Banerjee and the Congress leaders.”
Meanwhile, the chief minister would inaugurate the mass housing project at New Town. “I had invited Mamata Banerjee to inaugurate it but she did not respond. Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is also very busy now. Therefore, the chief minister will inaugurate it,” Mr Deb said.
He expressed his hopes that one day Ms Banerjee would change. Though she did not accept his invitation, Mr Deb said he was ready to co-operate with her. “The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO) will construct 10,000 lower income group (LIG) flats of which 5,000 will be reserved for land losers in different projects. If railways want to rehabilitate people displaced by the railway projects, we can give flats to them also at a price of Rs 3 lakh. The WBHIDCO will also contribute Rs 250 crore from its own exchequer, besides, giving land for the proposed Metro rail in New Town,” Mr Deb announced.
Replying to a question on possible change of guard in the state after the Assembly elections, Mr Deb said, “The eighth Left Front government will be formed and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be the chief minister. The Maoists will never come to power in the state”