Locals defy bandh to celebrate Singur Divas with gusto

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee  had earlier announced that Friday ( September 2) would be observed as Singur Divas in all the blocks and on September 14 she would hold an administrative meeting at Singur and take part in victory celebrations later. She inquired about the celebrations from Dubai airport on her way to Italy to join Mother Teresa’s canonization ceremony.

A meeting was organized at Beraberi bazaar in Singur. Veteran Trinamool Congress leaders Mukul Roy and Dola Sen both Rajya Sabha MPs and two leaders of the save farmland movement, Rabindranath Bhattacharya and Becharam Manna also took part in the meeting. Bhattacharya was the MLA from Singur when the state government acquired land for the Tata Motors Nano plant and Manna who was a local leader then, rose to fame during the movement. He contested in 2011 Assembly election and became a minister of state.

Describing the judgment of Supreme Court  as historic, Mukul Roy congratulated the farmers for their patience and unflinching support to Trinamool Congress. Dola Sen who was intimately connected to the movement recollected the stormy days when the Left Front regime had tried to break the movement. She said that Trinamool had always fought for the poor and would continue to do so in the future. Bhattacharya described the Apex Court verdict as a victory of the farmers who had waited anxiously for nearly a decade for this moment. In the morning colourful rallies were taken out and women blew conch shells to mark the beginning of the celebrations.

Meanwhile, land survey work commenced in Singur. The state labour minister Malay Ghatak went to the area where the proposed factory of Tata Motors was supposed to come up and initiated the survey. Senior officials of the state and district land and land reforms department were also present. 

It has been decided that labourers engaged in 100 days work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) would be enlisted to level the ground. Agricultural scientists would be brought in to examine the land and devise means to make it ready for cultivation. The water bodies that had been filled up would be replenished, while the top soil would be removed and earth brought from other places would be used to make the land cultivable.

Meanwhile, in further embarrassment for the Left, the CPM Polit Bureau on Friday said that the land acquisition and administration policy in Singur was wrong. This is the second statement issued by the party's highest policy making body against the state leadership in 3 months.