dubbhi@rediffmail.

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dubbhi@rediffmail.com
Singur is a
census town in
Hooghly district of
West Bengal.
Singur railway
station is 34 km
from
Howrah Station
Singur gained
international media
attention since
Tata Motors started
constructing a factory to
manufacture their
Rs. 100000 car, the
The small car was scheduled to roll out of
the factory by 2008. The choice of Singur
was made by the company among six
Tata Motors is a large publicly traded firm. Its decision to
locate the flagship Nano project in West Bengal provides an
opportunity for West Bengal to make a return to industrial
growth.

The experience of China, South Korea and even Tamil Nadu

in this decade shows that industries create well-paying jobs
at a rate agriculture cannot match[. If the Nano project is
Most of the land
acquired for the
project was smooth
and their land-
holders were
satisfied with the
compensation they
 compensation paid in
received.
Singur was higher -
Rs.9 to 12 lakhs/acre 
against Es.8 to 11
lakhs paid for Tata
-Telcon project near
Land acquired in Singur was lesser than the other
Kaharagpur.
project. Singur was 967 acres against 1251 acres for
the other project.

The land was acquired around the same time in 2006

and work started around same time

There were 2251 unwilling farmers in Singur while

A small number of absentee landlords,
illiterate farmers and Trinamul Congress
supporters refused to accept the
compensation offered.

Another point to bear

in mind is that most of the land-holders
never bought the land in the first place; there
is no rule of law in rural West Bengal in the
normal sense.

Agricultural land is doled out to

party supporters by local
hoodlums aligned with major
parties in the name of "land
reform".
The opposition's assertion that
the land is extremely fertile is
debatable; the land-holders have
not experienced anywhere near
Punjab-level agricultural output
efficiency or prosperity
Trinamool Congress who were reduced to
30 seats in Assembly and just one MP -
their one and only "Netri" - Mamata
Banerjee,obviously was looking for
opportunities to establish their political
relevance.

There were many - who were looking for

relevance - Left Partners, Congress and
some aggrieved intellectuals. Also
marginalized activists like Medha Patkar.It
also gave in opportunity to political groups
like SUC and Maoists trying to get a larger
foot hold.
So, the famous principle - " Enemy's enemy is friend ".
So, people with diverse ideologies and value to No Ideology and
No value bunched together with their own Agenda-

- for Trinamool Congress it was getting back political

relevance and fighting the main
enemy CPI(M).
There is bunch of Intellectuals who are
aggrieved for different reasons - from
Buddha Babu's refusal to fund movies to
throwing out friend like Taslima Nasreen to
ideological differences joined and came out
to support the "cause of farmers" in the
name of democratic principles. The
gullible and emotional Bengalis
were moved Mahashweta Devi's
symbolic kick ( Lathi in Bengali )
to one of the postsat boundary of
land allotted Nano project.
Mamata's Trinamul has created a road-block on NH2 and has virtually
stalled all construction activities in Tata's Nano plant.

Nandi gram being still fresh in their mind, the ruling party and
government in West Bengal is showing utmost patience and restraints.

UPA government at center has washed off their hand stating through
their spokesperson Priya Dasmunshi that the problem is creation of CM
of West Bengal and he alone will have to find a solution.

People of West Bengal and more particularly the unemployed youth are
watching the Political circus in despair.
On 23rd SEP,Tatas have decided to leave
Singur in West Bengal, the decision is reported
to have been made by the Tata management
and the Bengal government has been informed.

On 3 October it has become official that TATA

will leave Singur (WB) when Ratan Tata
announced it in a press conference in Kolkata.
While the ruling party has gone all out for acquisition of 997 acres (404 ha) of
multi-crop land required for the car factory, questions have been raised about
the partly allegedly forcible acquisition which was made under the colonial Land
Acquisition Act of 1894. Even the provisions by the Kolkata High Court. of this
act have allegedly not been met.

The law has provisions for state taking over privately held land for public
purposes but not for
The Tata Motors site is the most fertile one in the whole of the Singur, and the
Singur block, in turn, is among the most highly fertile in West Bengal.
Consequently, almost the entire local population depends on agriculture with
approximately 15000 making their livelihood directly from.

With the number of direct jobs to be created no more than about 1,000, many of
which are expected to go to outsiders, the local populace feel understandably
threatened for their livelihood Environmental degradation is also feared.
I do not know who achieved what, all that I know that
people of Singur ,surrounding areas and people of West
Bengal missed an opportunity to grow and prosper. They
have been back stabbed by their own people and so called
The entire scam,
which stinks of rot
and corruption in our
political system and
rot in our Society -
especially a large
section of
intellectuals who
have either been
very selfish and
perverse or have
been reckless and
lacked wisdom.
dubbhi@rediffmail.com