Kolkata, Feb 7 (IANS) Taking a dig at West Bengal’s ruling Left Front government for its alleged obstruction to and sabotaging several railway projects, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday said hollow protests cannot stop development.
‘Development cannot be stopped by protests. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. It is the people who will ultimately decide which way progress should head,’ said Banerjee at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a new Metro Railway route between Kavi Subhas and Dum Dum airport via Rajarhat.
Banerjee’s comments are in a direct reference to allegedly Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) backed anti-acquisition protests that have led to several of her projects getting scrapped or stalled.
‘We never aim to evict people from their land. For a project to be successful, proper planning is essential. All our projects have been properly planned. We do not announce projects with election on our minds.’
‘Projects announced in haste and haphazardly planned are never successful. This project is not planned recently. We had planned it last year,’ added Banerjee.
