30% of Singur farmers reject compensation

The West Bengal government has admitted that nearly 30 per cent of farmers whose land has been acquired for the Tata Motors project at Singur in Hooghly district have refused to accept compensation cheques.

In an affidavit submitted before the Calcutta High Court, the government stated that till April 25, owners of 671 acres had taken compensation, while for the rest of the acquired land, the owners had not.

The total land acquired for the Tata project was 997.11 acres. Of this, 645.67 acres has been leased out to Tata Motors for its small car factory.

Apart from the land given to Tata Motors, 290 acres have been reserved for ancillary industries, while WBIDC has kept for itself 47.11 acres for providing infrastructure and to meet other contingent necessities, the affidavit, submitted recently said.

The WBIDC allocated 14.33 acres of additional land to the West Bengal State Electricity Board for installing a sub-station.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who has been leading an agitation at Singur in Hooghly district demanding return of farmland to unwilling owners, has claimed that such land amounted to 402 acres.

Banerjee has claimed that the Tata Motors' small car project would not require more than 600 acres.

According to Land and Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, controversy lay over the acquisition of 326 acres of land, wherein the owners have not given consent and have not taken compensation.

Of the 326 acres, owners of 9.75 acres could not claim compensation owing to defective title documents, the affidavit said. The government denied that any land has been forcibly acquired and said the acquisition has been made in accordance with the provisions of Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

Meanwhile, hopes of a solution to the Singur stand-off after a "successful" Basu-Mamata talks last week received a jolt today as the CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu rejected the Trinamool Congress main demand for the return of land of "unwilling" farmers at Singur.