Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday asked minister Firhad Hakim to resolve an issue faced by the CPM to build a research centre after the name of the late marxist patriach Jyoti Basu, an official source said.
Senior CPM leaders Sujan Chakraborty and Rabin Deb met Banerjee at her Assembly chamber and requested her to look into the matter.
CPM state secretariat member Rabin Deb, who was part of the delegation, said his party had been allotted a five-acre plot of land by the erstwhile Left Front government in January, 2011 to build the Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research in the Rajarhat-Newtown area.
"Accordingly, we paid the full amount for the land in two instalments to the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) by the first half of May, 2011. However, after the present (Trinamool Congress) government came to power, we were not given possession of the land," said Deb.
During the meeting, the CPM leaders told Banerjee that they are ready to give away the portion of the land which was under litigation and start constructing the building in the remaining part.
"The CM asked Firhad Hakim to look into the matter and come out with a solution," the source said.
Hakim is the state urban development and municipal affairs minister.
The CPM is planning to set up Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research where documents related to the former chief minister's life as well as to communist movements in the country and the world will be stored. The proposed centre is scheduled to have digitised information on Basu, besides housing an auditorium, a conference room, a seminar room, a library and guest rooms.
Jyoti Basu, one of the founding politburo members of the CPM, was the Chief Minister of West Bengal during the Left Front rule from 1977-2000 before voluntarily stepping down owing to ill-health and old age. He passed away on Janaury 17, 2010.
