Economics trumps politics? Mamata men get Tata work contracts

Each syndicate constitutes 10-30 local residents whose land was acquired. They have pooled their compensation funds and secured contracts from Shapoorji Pallonji, the construction major which is the main contractor for the plant’s civil works.

Not just as contractors, many of the daily-wage labourers at the site are also the landless who worked as illegal sharecroppers on the acquired land and joined the anti-industrialisation campaign. West Bengal’s Industries Director M V Rao, who has played a key role in land acquisition and disbursal of compensation, says that at least 60% of the labourers are among those who initially opposed the Tata project. At an average wage of Rs 70 a day, an estimated Rs 10 lakh is being paid as wages each week.

But Mukul Roy, Trinamool MP, claims he has no such information. “As far as the TMC is concerned, we will not allow the Tata project to come up in Singur.” Perhaps, he should meet some of the following:

• Sheikh Shahidul Islam is a staunch Trinamool member who refused the government’s compensation cheque for 1 bigha in his wife’s name that was acquired for the Tata plant. Two years ago, Islam was in New Delhi working as a goldsmith. After coming back to his birthplace at Chak Kalikapur village near the Tata project area, he had been jobless. (He did not farm his own plot). Now, this Trinamool member has joined a syndicate to supply bricks, sand and stonechips to the Tata project site.

“I invested Rs 300,000 of my own money in this business, and we are happy working with Shapoorji Pallonji,” Islam said,

• Also supplying material for construction is Probir Ghosh, a Trinamool leader whose elder brother had been murdered, allegedly by CPM cadres three years ago in Singur. Ghosh gave 1.5 bighas of family land to the project and is left with 2.5 bighas.

“I got around Rs 4 lakh as compensation and I have invested the entire amount in my syndicate,” says Ghosh. “It’s a very profitable business. Those who are giving us contracts are not checking our political credentials.”

• Dwarik Ghosh is a local Congress leader who gave 2.5 bighas to the project. Left with 6 bighas outside the Tata boundary wall, Ghosh has formed a “syndicate” to supply labour for the project work. Ten members of his syndicate are landlosers. Ghosh and his partners have to supply at least 200 labourers a day for the civil work.

• The story does not end with landlosers. There are many landless labourers attached to the plots that were acquired for the 997-acre Singur project. For example, Soumen and Ranjan Dhara, two brothers in their 20s, from Madhusudanpur village, one of the epicentres of the anti-project campaign. They carry headloads of bricks being used in the main construction area.

“We are Trinamool supporters,” says Soumen Dhara. “We were among those who gheraoed the Tata officials when they first visited the plant site last year. But we need work.”

Soumen Dhara says there are many like him who are hesitant about coming forward since they had taken part in the initial protests. “But they will soon join us in this work,” he says. Now, the brothers are each earning Rs 70 a day. “This is very important to us for running our families,” says Ranjan Dhara. The brothers have three dependents.

Says P K Dasgupta, Shapoorji Pallonji’s senior general manager, eastern region: “In consultation with the government, the company has adopted a policy of giving priority to landlosers and daily-wage earners of Singur while allotting jobs. We don’t look at anyone’s political identity.”