The West Bengal CM said that industrialization process and Tatas'project in Singur are irreversible assured distribution of land to landless farmers in Nandigram.
KHEJURI (WB): Notwithstanding the flak for his government's farmland acquisition policy, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on Sunday made it clear that the industrialization process and the Tatas' car project in Singur are irreversible but sought to soften up protests by distributing land to landless farmers in Nandigram.
"The people need to understand that the industrial process being initiated by the state government is irreversible and transition from agriculture to industry is an inevitable course", he told a rally organized by CPI(M) adjoining Nandigram.
Bhattacharjee reaffirmed the government's resolve to make the Tata Motors small car project in Singur a reality.
He said 96 per cent of the farmers had given consent for land for the factory and taken the compensation cheques.
Only four per cent of farmers were yet to give their consent for handing over their land for the project, he said adding, "the question is whether the project would be scrapped for only four per cent people".
Coming down heavily on opposition Trinamool Congress, which is spearheading the campaign against the acquisition of farmland, Bhattacharjee said "those who are trying to set fire to haystacks and uprooting poles of the fence at the Singur project site would not succeed in their designs. The Tata project will come up at Singur".
The Chief Minister distributed rights over land to 5040 landless farmers in Nandigram and adjoining areas and said the state government will explain to the people in detail the benefits that would accrue from the mega chemical hub and the multi-product SEZ in Nandigram and also the return the farmers would be getting from it.
"If people are not convinced about this logic, we will definitely have to think of shifting the project elsewhere but we will patiently go to the people and try to answer all the questions and whatever misgivings they have,'' Bhattacharjee said.
Referring to the troubled situation in Nandigram, he said the unrest fomented by the Opposition must end.
The Chief Minister accused the opposition of trying to whip up people's sentiments by making 'false propaganda' about the state's industrial policy.
Violence in Nandigram over the proposed projects had claimed six lives last month.
''Our politics is aimed at development and raising the living standard of the people and Opposition politics revolves around digging roads, attacking police and CPI(M) men'', he said.
Bhattacharjee assured the farmers that utmost care would be taken to ensure rehabilitation of the displaced families and proper price for land-losers.
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