I can die peacefully: Mamata Bannerjee after Singur verdict

KOLKATA: The Singur verdict is a shot in the arm for Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Singur land agitation catapulted the issue of land acquisition, relief and rehabilitation to the national mainstream and triggered the end of the three decade old Left rule. Now, the verdict which is a direct victory for Banerjee’s tenet on Singur will foster her attempt to gain prominence on the national political radar. Minutes after the judgment, she called Singur land deal as the ‘historical suicide’ on the part of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s Left Front government. However, Nirupam Sen, industry and commerce minister in Bhattacharjee’s government claimed that nothing ‘wrong’ was done in the land acquisition process in 2006 as per the existing rule.

“Singur land movement is a case study for the world. I have always appealed to all the political parties not to support forcible land acquisition anywhere in the country. I will request the centre to give a second thought to the land bill pending in the Parliament,” said Banerjee. “I am very happy today. Historic verdict of the Honorable Supreme Court on Singur land acquisition is a landmark victory of Maa-Mati-Manush. Even though, we came back to power with a huge mandate, I had a discontent that we could not succeed in Singur issue. But, now I can die peacefully,” she added with a smile.

However, former industry and commerce minister Nirupam Sen told ET, “The Left Front government has complied with all rules as per the existing law and nothing wrong was done during the acquisition process.” The Supreme Court, though, criticized the process of land acquisition in 2006.
For almost ten years, Singur stood testimony to what all is wrong with India’s land acquisition policy. The 2,400-odd farmers who had refused to accept money for their land forcibly acquired for the Tata Nano project are still waiting for their farmland to be returned, 6 years after the company moved the project to Gujarat.

The apex court has today ordered the government to review the present situation and return the land to the farmers in 12 weeks. About compensation, the court has said, the farmers who did not accept money should be provided with the compensation while the willing farmers do not need to return the compensation money.

Even though, Mamata Banerjee’s party men are rejoicing the victory, her bureaucrats have already become apprehensive about the future course of action. The process of identifying the land owner and returning land to them is as complicated as the acquisition. “It is a herculean task. The number of unwilling farmers has also increased over the years with more litigation and legal disputes,” said a top bureaucrat. Banerjee has called for a special strategy meeting for Singur to decide on the future course of action tomorrow and asked her party men to observe September 2 as ‘ Singur day’ across the state.

For last 10 years, once-well off farmers of Singur have been living on government dole of rice at Rs 2 per kg and Rs 2,000 as gratuitous relief. Sixty year old Gopal Ghosh is one of them. Ghosh, who had 12 bighas of land, today boarded a train to Bangalore for treatment of cardiac disease. “I was financially very stable with my land. But with the Singur movement, I lost my land. Since then, I have been working at others fields as a labour. Now, I am suffering from a cardiac disorder. I have lost ten years of my life for this,” he sobbed. Welcoming the court’s decision, he said, “I will start living again with my land back. I cannot wait to cultivate my own land.”