In battle for Singur, Mamata ups the ante

Even as Tata Motors showed strong signs of moving its small car project out of West Bengal, political tensions over the plant in Singur continued to run high.

In a fresh attack today, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and her allies from the Krishi Jami Bachao (Save Farmers’ Land) Committee met Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

Insisting that she wanted the plant to come up in Singur itself, Banerjee demanded that the September 7 pact that her group signed with the state government be honoured and the committee set up under the deal be allowed to identify the land that could be returned to the farmers who were not willing to give their land for the project.

These farmers have refused to accept compensation although their land has been acquired by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for the 997-acre factory site.

Banerjee also demanded invocation of Article 355 saying the state was violating the law and had breached all clauses of the agreement.

Accusing the government of fraud by distributing rehabilitation cheques from state funds, she demanded that the state package, announced on September 14, be scrapped. Her fourth demand, unrelated to Singur, was for parity between the pay of state and central government employees.