Singur land to be returned to owners in next 15-20 days: Mamta Banerjee

Banerjee claimed that 80% of the 997 acres of land at the site have been made ready for farming

The process of returning the land at Singur, the erstwhile site of the Tata Motor's Nano factory which got scrapped midway, to the landowners will be completed in the coming 15-20 days, West Bengal's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee said.

"The process of giving physical possession of land in Singur will be completed in 15-20 days", she said.

"I will be present personally", the chief minister added.

Banerjee claimed that 80 per cent of the 997 acres of land at the site have been made "ready for farming".

Tata Motors' had filled up the land with fly-ash and constructed concrete-steel buildings to go ahead with the Nano project which had to be abandoned midway in face of stiff opposition from Banerjee and her party - the Trinamool Congress.

Banerjee, now the chief minister, was the leader of opposition then, when the pro-industry Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government allotted the land to Tata Motors. However, of the 13,000 project-affected farmers, 2,000 refused to accept compensation cheques from the government to part with their land. With Banerjee going ahead with indefinite agitation in support of the 2,000-odd farmers, the project ultimately had to be relocated to Sanand in Gujarat, in October 2008.

After relocation, Tata Motors was still in possession of the land. However, in August this year, the Supreme Court quashed the Left Front-led West Bengal government's acquisition of 997 acres of agricultural land in 2008 for Tata Motors and directed the present Trinamool Congress government, led by Mamata Banerjee, to re-distribute the land to its owners in 12 weeks.