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Leave Nandigram behind, says Lalu

Kolkata: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has appealed to political parties as well as the people of West Bengal to leave the issue of Nandigram behind for the sake of peace in the State.

“Stop fighting over the Nandigram issue, forget Nandigram,” he said. “You must keep peace as without peace, there can be no progress,” he said here on Saturday. He said that a team of Members of Parliament belonging to the Rashtriya Janata Dal would soon be visiting Nandigram, adding that the West Bengal government was doing all it could to resolve the issue.

Mr. Prasad was speaking at a function after flagging off the tri-weekly express train between Kolkata and Balurghat, the headquarters of Dakshin Dinajpur district. He also flagged off the weekly Pratham Swatantrata Sangram Express that will run between Barrackpore and Jhansi, two places that played a significant role in the events surrounding the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.“If farmers do not want to give land, then the government should not interfere,” Mr. Prasad said. “Let private investors engage directly with the farmers ,” he said.

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