Trinamul finds 300 acres, govt 40
By KINSUK BASU
Singur, Sept. 10: Becharam Manna, the Trinamul land scout, cast a critical eye on the half-finished power plant in a corner of the Singur complex and wondered aloud.
“Can’t this be dismantled and the land recovered…?”
Neelam Meena, the Hooghly district magistrate, politely reminded him: “Please think before you make such a statement, Mr Manna. Half of the construction is over. So, how can you say this?”
And thus proceeded the spot-the-land reality show inside the Singur car complex: the Trinamul team finding almost every piece of vacant land suitable for rehabilitating farmers and the government representatives trying to explain how the stretch has already been factored in.
At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour hunt, this is what each team brought to the table — Trinamul: 300 acres could be found inside the complex; government: 40 acres.
The two teams — part of the committee that is looking at ways to implement the Sunday “agreement” — are expected to meet again tomorrow.
But an air of futility is already gathering around the exercise with sources in the government fearing that a phase of festering impasse — Mamata keeping up her rhetoric without reviving the siege and the Tatas refusing to resume work — could set in.
The fear — described by some as the “worst outcome in a bad situation” — could come true if the committee fails to resolve the key issues by Monday when it is expected to file its report. The lone silver lining during the day was Mamata’s silence, probably intended at not queering the pitch while the panel is at work.
Trinamul team leader and Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya declared after the site survey that “if the state government wants, maximum land can be given from the project area itself. This could amount to around 300 acres”.
The reply came soon enough. In Calcutta, industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen said: “The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) has about 40 acres inside the project area which the government can think of giving back, though I don’t know in which form that is possible. Besides that, I don’t think any quantum of land more than 40 acres inside the project area can be returned as of now.”
Asked whether land not occupied so far by ancillary units can be given back, Sen said: “The committee found that land meant for the vendors had been developed by dumping fly ash in several places. That means many ancillary units are preparing to set up shop. Some have also adopted a wait-and-watch approach as the Tatas have suspended work. So, it’s a difficult question as to whether ancillaries can be relocated. The integrated nature of the project is to be maintained in order to economise costs.”
Other officials said the seven-foot-high fly-ash layer had already made the land uncultivable.
Manna betrayed no sign that he was aware of such limitations as he bounded from one vacant spot to another, accompanied by WBIDC managing director Subrata Gupta, Meena and Bhattacharya.
At one point, baking in the sun, Meena and Bhattacharya paused under the shade for a few minutes. But not Manna, who ensured that Gupta accompanied him.
Government sources said they were given to understand that the Trinamul team expressed “surprise” at the advanced stage of work. The members apparently said they did not realise from outside how much work had been done.
“But will they have the freedom to give such an assessment to Mamata?” an official wondered. The team briefed Mamata in the evening. (END)
Ex-judge statement
Raj Bhavan today said Chittatosh Mookerjee had conveyed to the governor that The Telegraph report on Wednesday “does not correctly represent” what the former chief justice had told the paper on Tuesday night.
“I had said that the agreement signed by both sides speaks for itself. It was felt that there ought to be land-based settlement and some lands in and around the project area could be released/returned. As yet, there has been no agreement regarding the actual area to be returned/given either from within the project area or outside,” a Raj Bhavan statement issued in the evening quoted the legal adviser as saying.
Mamata Banerjee has been saying that it was agreed “300 acres” would be returned from within the project. The statement issued by Raj Bhavan today makes it clear that no agreement had been reached on the quantum of land.
On Wednesday, The Telegraph had quoted Mookerjee as saying: “I was present at Sunday’s meeting between the chief minister and Mamata Banerjee. There it was decided that a few acres of land from within the project area would be given to the farmers who have not yet collected the cheques, but there was no talk of 300 acres.” ( END) Source: The Telegraph
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