Bengal industry minister inspects Singur site

Acting on the promise of the Trinamool Congress-led government in West Bengal to return land to unwilling farmers at Singur, industry minister Partha Chatterjee today visited the abandoned Tata Motors small car plant site.

Accompanied by WBIDC managing director Subrata Gupta and local Trinamool MLA and school education minister Rabindranath Bhattacharjee, Chatterjee inspected the entire site and held a meeting with WBIDC officials at a camp office located within the premises.

After coming out of the meeting, Chatterjee told waiting reporters, "It will not be difficult to return 400 acres to the unwilling farmers, provided 'all sides' agreed."

On the very day of the inauguration of her government on May 20, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had promised to return 400 acres of land to the unwilling farmers and welcomed the Tatas to set up shop on the remaining 600 acres.

While Chatterjee was talking to WBIDC officials inside the camp office, some farmers, who had received cheques for parting with their land for the plant to come up, expressed dismay at the 'dismal' state-of-affairs.

On the other hand, the farmers, who had refused to receive cheques, told reporters they had expected to get back their land immediately after the new government was installed.