‘Singur farmers may get back land before Oct 21 deadline’

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would hold a meeting in Nabanna from 3 pm on Monday and decide the date from when the process of giving “physical possession” of land to farmers can begin. She would take the decision after going through the report on the progress of work in Singur. 

The state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee would submit the report after his visit to the site on Sunday evening. Chatterjee inspected the progress of the work and held meetings with ministers Tapan Dasgupta, Ashima Patra and local MLAs Rabindranath Bhattacharya and Bacharam Manna. Senior officials from the state secretariat and Hooghly district were also present in the meeting.

Handing over of land to farmers in cultivable condition was to start by October 21 ( as per Supreme Court orders). Though the Chief Minister will decide on the exact time-frame at Monday’s meeting in Nabanna, sources said that the process would begin ahead of October 21 as the state government has been successful in rendering 870- acre of land fit for cultivation.

The state government had left no stone unturned to abide by the order of the Supreme Court Division Bench comprising Justice V. Gopal Gowda and Justice Arun Mishra. Terming the acquisition of 997 acre of land for the Tata’s Nano car project in Singur unjustified, the Division Bench had directed the present state government on August 30 to return the land in cultivable form within 12 weeks.

There were nine sheds being built by the Tata Motors for the project on about 71 acre of the acquired land. There were concrete columns around 30 feet deep for each of the sheds. Experts were engaged and dynamites were used to break the concrete columns. It is learnt that the work of removing seven of the nine sheds is complete and the task of handing over of cultivable land would start from Gopalnagar mouza. It is also learnt that the process would kick off with 25 acres of land in the mouza.

The state government has pulled out all stops to make the land cultivable and level it within the stipulated time. Additional workers were deployed two weeks ago to complete the task before time.  

The farmers of Singur are eagerly waiting for the Chief Minister’s announcement on the date  when the land handover would begin.