Despite SC ruling, farmers yet to get Singur land back

A little over a year after the Supreme Court ruled on August 31, 2016 that the acquisition of land at Singur in Hooghly district by the then Left Front government was illegal and that the 997.11 acres land acquired was to be returned to the erstwhile land owners, many farmers complain that they are yet to get physical possession of the land and those who have, complain that it is not arable.

Take for example Dwariknath Ghosh. The 60-year-old resident of Beraberi Purbapara at Singur owned two bighas and five cottahs of land within the proposed Tata Nano manufacturing unit campus. "I have not received my land as it has not been identified yet," he said talking to DNA.

Finding no other way to fend for his family, this farmer has now become a fast food seller. "What to do? I could not let my family die because the government had been unable to return my land," he said.

He also alleged that they had been kept deprived of government assistance of Rs 2,000 and 16 kg rice every month.

"Only those families which are known to be supporters of TMC are getting that assistance," he said.

Similar is the story of Sudip Ghosh who had about 5.5 bighas of land. "The government had promised that land will be returned in a cultivable state but they have dumped concrete debris on a major part of my land and I cannot carry out farming there," he said. Most part of the proposed campus of the Tatas have now become grazing grounds for cattle.

Local TMC MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya, talking to DNA conceded, "That is a big job which is pending. Over 40 per cent of land needs to be demarcated and it cannot be done because the land is not hard enough at the moment to be marked on. After the monsoon, we will do the demarcation," he said.

Singur's BDO, Dr Suman Chakraborty, however, said that complaints of people could be because of their political inclination. "People who support some political party might complain and cry foul. We can't do anything about that," he said.