Monday, October 17 2005 19:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today (Oct 17, 2005) threatened to lay siege to the metropolis on October 20 during the arrival of Beni Sentosa, the chairman of the Indonesia-based Salim group, which is in the midst of controversy over agricultural land to be given to it for projects in West Bengal.

'We will be on the streets from noon to 3:00 pm to protest the Buddhadev Bhattacharjee government's move to hand over agricultural land to the black-listed Salim group. We will not allow this. We will fight to the end,' Banerjee told reporters here.

''If the Left Front Government creates a problem that day, the responsibility will be solely theirs,'' she warned.

Stating that she herself would also be on the road, the TC supremo appealed to the people not run any risk as the ' Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) may create trouble to defame us.'

TC workers would also demonstrate throughout the state against the Front Government's move to take agricultural land from farmers in the name of industrialisation, she said.

Asked whether there would be a bandh-like situation on the day, she said that unlike the CPI-M, her party did not want to stall normal life.

'But, we now have our backs to the wall, we have no other way, but to agitate. They want to harm the poor, whom we want to protect,' she said.

Charging the CPI-M-led administration with imposing an 'unwritten emergency', she said that from October 19 to 21, the state Government had disallowed anyone from going near the airport here.