January 14, 2011 2:35:47 am
Building a factory on 600 acres in Singur will be the first project of the state government if Trinamool comes to power in 2011,announced party chief Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Singur on Thursday.
Singur is the birthplace of our agitation, Mamata said. We will build a factory and develop agriculture in Singur. We will build a factory only on those 600 acres,and give back 400 acres to the unwilling farmers. That will be my first priority after freeing Bengal from the clutches of CPM.
The Railways,she said,is ready to come up with a coach factory on those 600 acres,provided the state government hands over the land.
I raised the issue in the Parliament too, she said. I have sent letters to the state government proposing to build a railway coach factory on those 600 acres,if they give us that land. I never got a reply.
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Raising the slogan of Nandigram theke Netai,ganahatyar bichar chai (From Nadigram to Netai,we want justice for the genocide),she had walked for 4 kms in the rally from Joymollah crossing to Beltala in Singur,flanked by party parliamentarians,legislators and district leaders.
At the rally,with Mamata seated next to him and listening intently,former land commissioner Debabrata Bandopadhyay gave a blueprint of how the party will go about returning the 400 acres.
The general perception is that a land acquired by the state government cannot be returned, he said. But that is not correct. Section 21 of the General Causes Act says in case of an emergency,a land acquired by the state can be returned to the parties if the constitutional head that is,the Governor nullifies the acquisition notice.
Mamata,too,said in no uncertain terms that if a new government comes to power,it will definitely return the land. There are,however,glitches in the blueprint.
The 1,000 acres in Singur were acquired by the state government and leased out to Tatas for the car factory. Neither Mamata nor Bandopadhyay threw any light on what the state government will do,if even after the Governor nullifies the acquisition notice,the Tatas refuse to return the land.
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