Mamata Banerjee says she will never ride a Nano

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has lauded Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's train ride as part of his party's austerity drive. Mamata Banerjee, who inaugurated the newly spruced up terminal of New Delhi railway station in the capital along with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday, lauded the austerity act.

August 3rd, 2009 SINGUR - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has said her ministry was ready to set up a rail coach factory at Singur, if the land earlier acquired by the Tatas to set up 'Nano' factory was made available. Banerjee was flagging off the new Singur-Howrah 'Andolan' suburban train in Singur.alking to reporters here on Sunday, Banerjee said she wanted 600 acres of land for the proposed rail coach factory, out of the 1000 acres acquired for the small car project and 400 acres returned to the farmers.

July 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday expressed concern over the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, saying it has endangered the people's economic security. "I am very upset with the recent price-rise in the country.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Indian Railways has over 1.7 lakh vacancies for various grades, which will be filled in after reviving the existing recruitment process, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee informed the Rajya Sabha today. Replying to a question, Banerjee said the review of the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) would also examine regional aspirations and problems raised during the railway recruitment process in Maharashtra, Assam, and Karnataka.

July 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her ministry would look at providing infrastructure and land for setting up Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). "We might even look at building IITs in the future," Banerjee told the Lok Sabha in a discussion on the railway budget.

May 19th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is game to talk to the Tatas if they want to speak to her on setting up the Nano plant in Singur, but said the auto major will have to return 400 acres of land acquired from farmers for the project. 'If the Tatas want to speak to us on Nano, I will talk.

May 16th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee registered her sixth consecutive victory from the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, trouncing her nearest rival, Rabin Deb of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) by 219,571 votes. Banerjee, who has been winning from this seat since 1991, had defeated Deb in 2004 also.

April 29th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani, on Wednesday laid the onus on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to choose between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Talking to reporters at the airport after arriving in the city to campaign for the elections, Advani said, "Mamata has to decide whether she wants to join the NDA or stay with the Congress." Advani clarified that the decision to leave the NDA and join hands with the Congress was solely taken by Banerjee.

March 27th, 2009 KOLKATA - Four days after the launch of the Nano in Mumbai, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Friday alleged that the event was timed with the Lok Sabha elections in mind and was a conspiracy against her. Participating in an interactive programme aired by a private television news channel, Banerjee said: 'The launch of the Nano was timed keeping in view the approaching Lok Sabha polls.

March 24th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday released her party's manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. "The party aimed at forming a secular, progressive and stable government at the centre which would focus on economic reforms, industry, agricultural development and adopt pro-people policies," the election manifesto said.

March 24th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, whose campaign against land acquisition forced Tata Motors to move its Nano factory out of West Bengal, Monday dismissed the glittering launch of the world's cheapest car in Mumbai with a curt 'that's not our business'. As Tata Motors launched its much-awaited people's car far away in Mumbai, the Trinamool Congress released its party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections here.

March 24th, 2009 KOLKATA - As the world watched the launch of Tata Motors' Nano in Mumbai, an agitated Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Monday said she was not bothered by the event and lost her cool with journalists for asking whether she now regretted her campaign that forced the world's cheapest car out of West Bengal. 'We don't care for Nano.

March 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A group of Trinamool Congress workers came all the way from Nadia district in West Bengal and held a demonstration before the spartan single-storey residence of party chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata, asking for poll nominations. This prompted a top party leader to say: 'Just because 'didi' (Banerjee) is so approachable and lives in a shabby house, you had the guts to come here.

March 14th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday fielded a woman candidate against Mamata Banerjee for the Lok Sabha's Kolkata South seat after Trinamool Congress snapped ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to team up with the Congress in West Bengal. BJP sources here said the party's state Mahila Morcha (women's wing) president Jyotsna Banerjee has been nominated for the prestigious constituency.

February 6th, 2009 SINGUR - Giving the West Bengal government seven days to return the land it acquired allegedly by force for Tata Motors' project here, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday said farmers should divide the land among themselves if the state failed to keep to the deadline. Adopting a tough posture at a rally close to the plot where stands the abandoned factory that was once slated to roll out the world's cheapest Nano car, Banerjee said the Trinamool-run village bodies would back the peasants if they forcibly took hold of the 400 acres.