Mamata Banerjee sprinkles mustard seeds in Singur on Thursday. Source: Partha Paul
Marking an end to the 10-year-long Singur land agitation, farming is set to resume at the demolished Tata Nano car plant site on Thursday, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sprinkling mustard seeds on the land.
Physical possession of 103 acres of land was given to 298 farmers well within the 12-week deadline set by the division bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice V Gopala Gowda of the Supreme Court on August 31. The bench had ruled that the land acquisition process in Singur for the car project was faulty, and was not for public purpose.
“Of the 997 acres which will be returned, besides 65 acres, the rest have been converted into cultivable land. While by November 10 we plan to return all the land to the claimants, if my officials can complete the task by November 8, nothing like it,” Mamata said while addressing a gathering at Gopalnagar mauja within the erstwhile Nano factory site. She personally handed over land to 21 farmers.
She added that out of these 65 acres, construction had come up on 36 acres, which would be cleared. “The land would be made cultivable before returning it to the farmers within the deadline given by the Supreme Court,” said the CM. Asked about the low turnout at the event, Mamata said: “Only those who are getting back their land need to come.”
Mamata, who had steered the agitation against “forcible” land acquisition in 2006, said: “Singur will be a model before the world, and a monument will be constructed here… I have asked the DM to find a place. The monument will remind us what the people here had gone through… It will contain photographs of Tapasi Malik and Rajkumar Bul, the two martyrs who had laid down their lives in the struggle to save their land.”
The CM talked to the farmers and enquired about the condition of the land and the kind of crops they plan to harvest in the days to come. She also handed over crop kits to some.
Hooghly District Magistrate Sanjay Bansal said that overall, land spread over five moujas will be returned to 10,436 people. “As many as 4,443 cheques have already been handed over to farmers. Moreover, 56 deep tubewells will be drilled to make the land even more conducive to agriculture,” he added. Sources said every day till 10 November, 40 50 acres would be handed over to farmers in Singur.
Last month, Mamata had handed over land ‘parchas’ and cheques to the farmers in Singur. ‘Parcha’ is a document which establishes a farmer’s ownership over a piece of land in revenue records. On Thursday, she promised to reward officials who had worked round-the-clock, and even during Puja in Singur.
Mamata Banerjee sprinkles mustard seeds in Singur on Thursday. Source: Partha Paul
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