Two Singur substations will be shifted to nearby place: Sobhandeb

Chatterjee’s statement has cleared the doubt that had been circulated in the area by some people with vested interested for the past few days, that the state government’s decision to return the land to the farmers in a cultivable condition was just a facade and actually industry would come up on the land of Singur.

“We have decided to shift two substations,” Chatterjee said on Thursday clarifying all doubts. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will address the people of Singur and take part in a victory rally on September 14. She will hold an administrative meeting before addressing the rally where she is likely to make some announcements. It was learnt that the state government would ask the farmers whether they want industry on the land. The state government has decided to return the land in cultivable condition to the farmers. The unwilling farmers will get both land and money while the willing farmers will only get back their land.

Meanwhile, work is on in full swing to restore the land to its original position. The state government is taking the help of agriculture experts of Kalyani Agriculture University to find out ways and means as to how the land could be restored.

In Banerjee’s absence, state ministers including Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Malay Ghatak, Sobhandeb Chatterjee and Partha Chatterjee had visited the site and supervised restoration operation.

As the land had remained unused for nearly a decade, labourers have been engaged to clean up the area. Over 300 acre has been cleaned up. The state government has put up a notice preventing entry of outsiders into the land. After Chief Minister announced that the land would be returned back to the farmers, people with vested interest were found to be loitering in the area. These people had been conducting whispering campaigns among the youth and were spreading all sorts of rumours.

Meanwhile, the unwilling farmers of Raghunathpur in Purulia have submitted a memorandum to the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer (BLLRO) demanding return of their land. The Left Front had acquired 7,420 acre of farm land from them forcibly to set up industries. But in the past one decade nothing has come up. The farmers got strength after the state government returned the land to the farmers in Burdwan where the Misti hub was to come up earlier.