Nirupam calls for political solution to Singur deadlock

The West Bengal government will not be able to bring any new investor for Singur unless a political solution is achieved.

State commerce and industry minister, Nirupam Sen said, “The problem with Singur is political. We must have a political solution, without that it’s not possible to do any project.” Sen was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of a Canadian trade office in Kolkata facilitated by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). On Tuesday, Tata Sons chairman, Ratan Tata said that he would return the land in Singur if the West Bengal government compensated the company for the investment it made at the site and was open to considering an alternative project there.

Tata Motors has renewed the lease for the year and so have most of the vendors. The total land at Singur was to the tune of 997 acres of which the mother plant was spread over 650 acres and the vendor park accounted for 290 acres.

Close to a year ago, Tata Motors pulled out its Nano project from Singur after an indefinite protest led by Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, who is now railway minister. Banerjee’s main demand was return of “400 acres” to unwilling land-losers though the state government puts the figure at 181 acres. Unless the issue of unwilling land-losers was resolved, the state government would not be in a position to invite investment proposals.