Singur farmers celebrate after getting back land

History came full circle in Singur today with the farmers getting back their land which they parted with 10 years ago to facilitate the construction of the Tata's Nano car plant.
It is another matter that the small car plant did not materialise, which could have provided employment to hundreds in an otherwise employment-starved state of West Bengal.
But the farmers let forget and celebrated the return of the land parchas to them by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had shepherded the prolonged agitation which finally saw the shifting of the Nano plant to Sanand in Gujarat.
Both 'willing' and 'unwilling' farmers came onto the Durgapur Expressway and danced with abandon with pictures of Mamata Banerjee and flags of Trinamool Congress in their hands.

They greeted each other with green gulal and sweets. The children wearing colourful kurta pyjamas and saris danced as slogans like 'Banglar Jananetri Mamata Banerjee zindabad', 'Mamata Banerjee tomay amra bhulchi na, bhulbo na (we will never forget you)' rent the air.
Special dignitaries like Medha Patkar, former TMC MP and singer Kabir Suman, thespian Shaoli Mitra, who had been part of Banerjee's land acquisition movement, lauded the "victory of Singur as the victory of mass resistance".

"It is because of 'Mamatadi' that we are witnessing this day. We never thought that this day would ever come. It was because of Didi's fight that we are getting back our land and monetary compensation," Menoka, wife of one of the unwilling farmers, said.

Large posters of Banerjee were seen along the long stretch of Durgapur Expressway.
The songs of "Amar Sonar Bangla" , "Ami Bangla eh gaan gayi" echoed the air as Banerjee entered the venue.
"Be it industry or farm land. We will accept whatever decision Mamata di takes. We have full faith on her," said Madhusudhan Mondal.
It was Banerjee's anti-land acquisition movement in Singur in November 2006 that had brought her back to prominence after her party's huge setback in the Assembly polls earlier that year.
Riding on the Singur movement and the one at Nandigram in January 2007, Banerjee turned the table on the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which began losing political ground in the state starting the 2008 panchayat and the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, culminating in their defeat in the 2011 Assembly election in the state after 34 years.

After coming to power in 2011, Banerjee's first legislation was the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 for returning land to the unwilling farmers.