Mamata Banerjee today hinted that the Trinamool Congress and its allies could resume the agitation for return of 300 acres inside the 997-acre Tata Motors Nano factory at Singur, and another 100 acres around it, because the West Bengal government had violated the agreement reached with the Opposition at a meeting chaired by Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi on September 7.
Flashing copies of the agreement signed before the governor at a party rally in Singur today, she alleged the government had refused to allow the land examination committee to do its work though it was set up under the agreement signed by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Industries Minister Nirupam Sen and Panchayat Minister Surjya Kanta Mishra.
CPI(M) sources told Business Standard that partymen from Singur had reported that five farmers had accepted the revised compensation offered by the state government.
Mamata, speaking at the rally in Singur today, claimed that the committee had surveyed the factory site and was to submit a report on the maximum amount of land inside the factory that was suitable for farming and could therefore be returned to the unwilling 2,200-odd farmers who had not accepted compensation.
Mamata said her nominees on the committee — Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharjee and Singur leader Becharam Manna, convenor of the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee — would submit their report to the governor after his return on September 19, after which the party would decide on its future course of action.
Manna denied that farmers had accepted compensation under the revised package. “Our members are not after a package, they want land,” he said.
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The government, instead of honouring the September 7 agreement, had killed the land examination committee and instead announced its special rehabilitation package for the unwilling farmers through media advertisements on September 14, alleged Mamata.
Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, Mamata’s mentor in her student days and former TC mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, joined her rally today though he had recently returned to the Congress. Also, a group of intellectuals including artist Suvaprasanna and film personality Aparna Sen issued a statement condemning the “unethical” move of the government in rejecting the September 7 agreement and demanded the return of land to unwilling farmers while also asking the Tatas to build the Nano in Bengal after respecting the local opinions.