Mamata may find tough keeping Singur promise

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee may not be able to keep her promise of returning the disputed land in Singur to the farmers after becoming the West Bengal chief minister.

According to the lease agreement between Tata Motors and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), the lessor will have the option to terminate the lease if the land has not been used for three years or more, which will kick-in in October 2011. Tata Motors had pulled out the Nano project in October 2008.

But even if the WBIDC decides to initiate action against the company, the provisions in the agreement will ensure a long wait for the return of 400 acres — a figure disputed by the state government which has pegged it at 181 acres — to the unwilling farmers, a demand that catapulted Banerjee to a state leader from a street fighter.

To do so, WBIDC will have to notify the breach in writing, and if it is not rectified within six months of the receipt of the notice, then a further notice in three months will have to be served. Thereafter, WBIDC will have the right to terminate the deed. Tata Motors will then have a year to remove its plant, machinery, equipments and raw materials from the site.

“All we can share with you is that the plot in Singur, which was given to Tata Motors, is under the company’s lease,” said a Tata Motors spokesperson. The company has paid the rent for the year.

The total land in Singur, acquired for the project, was 997 acres, of which the mother plant was spread over 650 acres and WBIDC had assured peaceful possession and enjoyment of the land, which could also come up, if termination clauses are applied. The vendor park accounted for 290 acres.

But if the lease is terminated, will the farmers get back the land? According to legal experts, there is no provision under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, to return the land. Once acquired for public purpose it cannot be returned.

One of the ways to give back the land, most of which has been filled with fly ash, will be by distributing it through “patta” under the Land Reforms Act. But then, the land will have to be used for agriculture. Also, the government can just pass a new law in the legislature. “It would be unprecedented, though,” said an expert.

Trinamool Congress, which reaped huge dividends from the Singur agitation, is determined to return the land even though a Tata group counsel said during a Supreme Court hearing late last year that the company will not give up rights on Singur and could come up with a bigger project.

“Tata Motors’ lease can be terminated on the ground they have not done any work on the Singur land in the last few years. But if the Tata group can come up with a plan then they can work on the 600 acres after returning the 400 acres,” Trinamool Congress leader, Partha Chatterjee, said.

But the question is are the 2,000 ‘unwilling’ land losers of Singur project want the land back? May be Chatterjee or Mamata Banerjee will find time to ask them, after the elections in Bengal.