The enthusiasm is palpable among the unwilling farmers of Singur, the ones who didn’t want to give up their land to the Tata Motors project, who have spent the morning bathed in green, dancing in front of television cameras.
But in announcing the return of 400 acres to them, West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee may just have created the grounds for the erstwhile ‘willing’ farmers to seek the return of their land, too. The Singur Shilpo Bikash o Unnayan Committee, comprising the willing land losers of Singur, is ready to agitate if the land is returned to unwilling farmers, citing non-compliance of the agreement on which their land was acquired.
“The Singur agreement postulated that land was acquired for the ‘Tata Motors Small Car Project’. If the project is scrapped, then so is the agreement on which our land was acquired. In this case, we want our land back and are prepared for agitation,” said Uddayan Das, president of the Committee.
He cites the present Land Acquisition Act, in driving home the point that land once acquired for a specific purpose cannot be returned. And, said if it was going to be done anayway, the 11,500 erstwhile willing farmers would resort to agitation, if needed.
In 2008, Tata Motors withdrew the Nano project from Singur because of the continuing agitation led by Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress on behalf of the unwilling farmers. Around 11,500 farmers collected compensation for the 997 acres acquired by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-headed Left Front government, while 2,500 chose not to. Yesterday, when Banerjee announced the ordinance taking back the entire land, she gave the unwilling farmers of Singur a cause to celebrate.
“We want to return the land before the potato season starts in October. The instructions from Didi (Banerjee) are to identify land which can be made cultivable and returned. For this purpose, we will identify plots through a survey, to start soon,” said Singur panchayat pradhan and TMC sympathiser, Dhudhkumar Dhara.
WHICH LAND?
Prakash Chandra Bagh, a health department official in Singur, said the attempt would be to return land losers the same land in the same mouza where his earlier plot was taken. Land was acquired from five mouzas, in Singur-Khasherberi, Baraberi, Singherberi, Gopalnagar and Bajemelia.
However, most of the unwilling farmers’ land was used in the Tata Motors factory, which was 80 per cent complete when the project was withdrawn. “Why should my land, acquired for industry, and now part of the abandoned ancillary unit site, be passed on to a farmer for agricultural use? There is no conceivable justification and we will not stand for this,” says Das.
The majority group says that on the back of the revised compensation agreement and the other perks promised earlier to them, they still have a claim to their plots. In 2008, when the package was revised after negotiations between the then government and the TMC, compensation was increased by 50 per cent. Also, land losers were promised that each family would get a job in the factory, along with a shop in the Singur market.
“We might have collected the first cheques, but the revised compensation entitles us to more. Around 3,000 youths were promised jobs, and we were promised a 500 sq ft shop, all of which we never received. This, means non-fulfillment of the acquisition agreement, strengthening our case for return of our land,” Das explained.
The technicalities, however, are of no consequence to the unwilling farmers of Singur, who feel vindicated after nearly five years of struggle, in which many have resorted to working in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for survival.
“I was beaten and thrown in prison when I protested. Now that the Left has been shown the power that a farmer wields, I do not care about what Ratan Tata claims. Didi will deal with him and his claims as she sees fit,” said Mrityunjaya Patra, who lost two bighas.
Only, instead of dousing fires, Banerjee’s announcement could well serve the fuel that Singur does not need.
