West Bengal government starts process to return Singur land to farmers

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Sunday kicked off the process of returning 400 acres to Singur farmers. The government's move comes a day after Tata Motors counsel Samaraditya Pal urged state Advocate General Anindya Mitra to agree to status quo with regard to distribution of land till the hearing continues in Calcutta High Court.

On Sunday morning, a notice was put up at the office of the block land reforms officer ( BLRO) of Singur by the state government inviting applications from unwilling owners who have not taken compensation for Singur land. The notice says that equivalent amount of land which they had given would be returned. The notice also adds that those wanting compensation instead of land can also apply. Nearly 3,000 application forms were distributed on the day itself.

The decision to start the land return process despite the ongoing court proceedings was taken by a 19-member committee on Saturday night. The committee has been set up by the Mamata Banerjee government to look into the Singur land distribution issue to unwilling farmers following proper legal procedure.

Those who were present at the meeting were law minister Malay Ghatak, state commerce & industry minister Partha Chatterjee, Hooghly district magistrate Sripriya Rangarajan, local MLA and school education minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya, Haripal legislator and Singur Krisi Jami Raksha committee convener Becharam Manna and Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Ratna De Nag.

On Sunday, Rabindranath Bhattacharya said: "Till 5 pm, we have distributed 3,000 forms to unwilling owners in Singur. Two offices - one at Kamarkundu and another at Gopalnagar - have been opened to help unwilling villagers collect forms and submit those to the BDO. We have asked the BDO to keep his office open till 8 pm on Sunday so that the farmers can submit their forms."