The acquisition controversy around the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh factory in Singur took a new turn today with opposition party Trinamul Congress (TC) under Mamata Banerjee inviting Tata Motors for talks to settle the land dispute.
The company said in response, “Tata Motors is not averse to talking to anybody”.
As TC controlled the local panchayat bodies at all levels, meetings between the two were unavoidable if the project were to get statutory approvals.
On August 5, Banerjee had appealed to Ratan Tata to listen to the voice of the local people who had voted out the CPI(M) and elected TC representatives in the May panchayat elections in Singur.
The state government was firmly backing the project and both chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and industries minister Nirupam Sen had stated on August 6 no land could be returned to farmers. TC was demanding the return of 350-odd acres to farmers whose land had been allegedly acquired forcibly by the state government for the project.
Interestingly, the land acquisition had been upheld by the Calcutta High Court and though the petitioners had moved the Supreme Court, the premier court had refused to issue a stay order on the issue. Land in Singur was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, the land acquisition Act still in effect in the state.
The 1894 Act was enacted for the purpose of compulsorily acquiring land for public purpose or for purpose of companies and also for the determination of the amount of compensation to be paid on account of such acquisition.
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The amount of compensation could vary, however, with the option of landowners who willingly give up their land eligible for a 'consent award'.
For this, they have to enter into an agreement with the collector of the district and they could get a maximum of 10 per cent premium on the land price fixed for acquisition.
Compensation was paid on the he land price, in case of all acquisitions, and this was fixed on the basis of land valuation on administration records, and Singur was no exception.
In reality, the administrative records recorded a much lower price than the market price in view of the cahs transactions that normally accompanies land deals.
According to the 1894 Act, the land-owner has no discretion whatsoever on the land acquisition process while the government could acquire land freely for public purposes.
Once acquired, the land cannot go back to the original owner. In case of any excess land left after the public purpose was completed, the government could decide how to use it for another public purpose.
In West Bengal, there had never been any instance when acquired land or property had been returned to the original owner, and so Mamata Banerjee’s demand appeared to be far-fetched.
Mamata Banerjee alleged that there was surplus land at the site at Singur, as the government, CPI(M) brokers and the state agencies had taken over much more land than required. She said the Maruti Suzuki factory occupied less land and produced many more cars than the proposed Tata Motors Singur factory.
The Singur area had elected TC representatives to all the three levels of the panchayat structure in the May elections in which the Left Front and CPI(M) suffered major setbacks and lost half the districts in the state.
The state had recently posted 850 more policemen at the site citing a threat from Naxalites and was expected to raise the number further by August 24, from which date TC would be building a series of protest platforms around the site to protest the forcible acquisition of land and to demand the return of 400-odd acres to farmers whose land had been forcibly acquired.