Work in full swing to return land in cultivable form before November 8

The work is going on a war footing with only two days left till November 8 which is the deadline to turn the land in Singur to cultivable condition before handing it over to farmers.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had initiated the process of handing over the land by giving possession of plots to 298 farmers on October 20. On the same day, she had announced from Singur itself that the entire process of converting the land to cultivable condition would be completed by November 8, which is 23 days ahead of the 12 weeks time given by the Supreme Court. 

Though initially she had set November 10 as the deadline, later she said that it would be so much better if the task can be completed two days ahead of schedule.

According to a senior official of Hooghly district, the conversion of 612.54 acre out of 997 acre of land for cultivation was complete till November 5. An assessment carried out by the district authorities revealed that around 300 acres of land is yet to be converted to cultivable condition. 

With only two days left for completion of the work before the deadline set by the Chief Minister, each and everyone involved in it had been working on a war footing.

It may be mentioned that around 10,436 land owners had collected the deed of right from the state government and 2,300 were yet to turn up. The farmers who had taken the deed of right would also be taking possession of the land.

The Hooghly district authorities have also issued a notification urging land owners to take possession of their plots in Gopalnagar, Beraberi, Singher Bheri, Khasher Bheri and Bajemelia mouzas.

Moreover, steps would also be taken for auctioning of the huge quantity of scrap iron which was removed while dismantling the structures built for the Tata’s Nano factory.

The portion of land where scraps were dumped has to be returned to the farmers too. It is learnt that auctioning of the scrap would take place only after November 8.

Initially it was decided to keep the scrap in a government owned plot under the custody of the District Magistrate till the Tatas give any response in this regard.

Partha Chatterjee, the state Parliamentary Affairs minister, had been overseeing the work of the turning the 997.11 acres of land to cultivable condition. He often visited the place and held meetings with other ministers, local MLAs and concerned officials. He may also be present in Singur on November 8 along with other senior ministers.

Rabindranath Bhattacharya, local MLA, said that an impossible task has been made possible in Singur under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The task of handing over of land to farmers had been going on since October 20 and the target is to let them start cultivating crops on the land as early as possible.