Full-fledged cultivation of Singur land by February end

Cultivation of crops on the entire 997 acre of land in Singur will start in full swing by the end of February.

The state government had returned the plots in cultivable condition to farmers in Singur following the Supreme Court's verdict. The Apex Court had directed the state government to return the land within 12 weeks. The Mamata Banerjee government had completed the task much ahead of the deadline.

Mamata Banerjee government took elaborate schemes to ensure cultivation of crops on the acre of the land that had almost turned barren with construction of sheds and other facilities of the automobile factory. A total of 56 submersible pumps were installed and irrigation facility has also been restored.

There was already full-fledged cultivation of mustard, potato and pulses on 500 acre of land and the growth of the crops in record time has removed doubts from the mind of the farmers who were brainwashed by some people with vested interest that cultivation would be next to impossible on the "barren land". Sowing of paddy seeds has also started on the land.

Now, by the end of February, the remaining work to help farmers for a better cultivation would get completed. Top brass of all the departments which are involved in the ongoing work in Singur went to take a stock of the progress of work on Sunday. Along with the officials from the departments, the district authorities and representatives of local panchayats were also present. February end has been set as the target for completion of the remaining work by the senior officials during their visit.

According to one of the officials, there are some pockets where the level of soil has to be lowered. Huge waterbodies were dug up. Most of them were filled up. Only the work of removing debris from only around 150 metres in the waterbodies and refilling it with soil will be completed by the end of February. There are round 13 to 14 pockets where there are some flyash, which will be removed, and the same area will be filled in with fresh soil.

After handing over land to the farmers, the state Agriculture department held a series of meetings with farmers to dispel doubts. Experts from Kalyani Agricultural University were engaged to test the quality of soil and they had all opined that high quality crops could be cultivated in Singur which was called the vegetable bowl of Bengal before the state government acquired land and the proposed automobile factory came up on the farm land.

The doubts of the farmers were fair. The irrigation system was totally destroyed and the irrigation canals were used to supply water to the automobile plant. The deep tube wells were removed barring the farmers from watering the crops that were being grown before the land was acquired. When the farmers got in touch with the erstwhile leaders of CPI(M) in Singur and those in administration, everybody pleaded innocence. However, no step was taken to restore the deep tube wells.