In the process of returning land to the farmers of Singur that had been forcefully taken away by the then Left Front government for the Tata Motors Nano project, the state government on Saturday decided to hand over as many as 300 cheques to the unwilling farmers at Singur on September 14.
The state government has also decided to hand over only land to those willing. The Supreme Court had instructed the state government to return the land to the farmers of Singur within 12 weeks.
The state Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim on Saturday visited Singur to supervise the work of cleaning, identification and plotting of land that is going on war-footing. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that land will be returned to the farmers in cultivable condition. Over 300 acre of land has been cleaned up. The erstwhile Left Front government had acquired 997 acres of farm land to set up the proposed factory of Tata Motors.
Two daises will be set up to observe the victory of save farmland movement on September 14 at Singur. It was led by Mamata Banerjee a decade ago. She will address the people of Singur and people hope that she will make some announcement for them from the stage. Banerjee will hold an administrative meeting before addressing the gathering. On another stage, the unwilling farmers and the family members of those who died during the course of the movement would be present.
Hakim said vehicles would be provided to those who were coming to the venue to receive the cheques. Many farmers had died during the past one decade in the struggle and their descendants would receive the cheques. Along with this, the documents related to the land will also be handed over to the farmers.
The residents of Singur are leaving no stone unturned to make the function a grand success. The judgment of the Supreme Court has opened a new chapter in the history of the movements launched by the farmers against acquisition of cultivable land to set up industry. Following the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, one minister of the Cabinet rank had visited Singur to supervise the work that is being carried out by the district administration.
Those associated with 100 days work are being involved to level the ground. Ministers including Partha Chatterjee, Purnendu Basu, Malay Ghatak, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and Firhad Hakim have visited the land in the past one week.
The district administration is going through the documents submitted by the farmers. The hopes among the youth have gone up as they believe that their beloved leader will make some announcement for them on September 14.