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Bengal: DYFI Begins Survey of Singur Farmers Who Haven’t Got Back Land Despite SC Order

Land was acquired for Tata Nano car factory in 2006, but TMC, which drove the project out of Bengal, is yet to return land to several farmers, says CP(M).
Singur

Kolkata: The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with the aim of helping farmers get back their land in Singur, has started a survey of collecting names of those who still haven’t got their land back from the government.

It may be recalled that Singur, where the Tatas were supposed to set up their Nano small car manufacturing plant in 2006 under the Left front government, had become a hotbed of an agitation led by then Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee, which drove Tatas out of the state to Gujarat.  Several farmers had given their land to the government, which has not been returned to many of them.

In 2016, the Supreme Court had directed the present state government run by the Trinamool Congress, led by Banerjee, to return the acquired land to farmers as it was cultivable. According to the CPI(M), many farmers have not yet got their land back despite the apex court’s order.

Recently, the CPI(M) took to the streets demanding the return of farmers’ land. During a public programme, the Left party’s workers, as well as of DYFI, visited various villages in Singur and handed over a printed application forms to the landowners, that say: “I want my cultivable land back”. In the application form, the name and address of the farmer, how much land the farmer has in any mouza and land record details have been sought. Farmers need to sign the application form filling out this information.

 DYFI members, who have been visiting villages, claim that the response to this programme has been very good.

“Many farmers are filling up and signing the application right away. Several are also taking help from our local party office to fill up and submit the forms,” said a DYFI member.

DYFI is conducting a signature campaign on another issue. Recently, the work of making fish broth in the Behri project (fish pond) was started by the government on 10 bighas of land acquired for the Nano factory. But, that work has been put on hold for the time being due to sustained DYFI protests opposing land use for the project. Signatures are being collected for that too  and DYFI claims that the response has been good.

It is learned that all these applications will be submitted to the block administration of Singur next month.

In 2006, while leading an agitation against the Nano factory, Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the land had been acquired by force from farmers. However, it is now well known that out of a total of 13,103 farmers in the project area, only 233 owners of legal land refused to give up their land at that time. The total land area of these reluctant farmers was only 40 acres.

The case regarding the acquired land also went to court. On August 31, 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that farmers should be returned their land for cultivation. After that, the Chief Minister went to Singur and spread mustard seeds in all that land and promised to return all of it. There would also be  a camp to  identify the land to be returned, she said. But now the authorities claim that it is not possible to identify the land to be returned. As a result, many farmers have not yet got back their land

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