In tune with the CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat's prescription after the panchayat poll debacles to the CPI(M)-led government to put on hold any development project vis-a-vis land acquisition drive, the West Bengal government on Tuesday declared that in face of any protest during land procurement for the Dankuni Township in Hooghly district, the entire project might be scrapped. Significantly, the state government has already put a brake on Salim Group's proposed projects in East Medinipur and North and South 24 Parganas. The state urban development and municipal affairs minister Ashok Bhattacharya said that the new land procurement committee will procure land in con sultation and in consensus with newly formed panchayat board and the local people for the Dankuni Township. DLF Ltd in collaboration with the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) proposes to build the township spread over 4,840 acres with an investment around Rs 33,000 crore. This project is already trailing deadlines by at least a year. "The land procurement committee for the Dankuni Township project has been dissolved and a new committee will be formed in consultation with the newly-formed panchayat board, which will work for and acquisition on the basis of consensus. We will not procure land unless people agree and if people do not want, the project would be shelved,' Mr Bhattacharya elaborated. According to the agreement, KMDA is responsible to purchase the land directly from the farmers.