We have not abandoned the site: Tatas

Tata Motors today argued in the Calcutta High Court that the company has “not abandoned the site” and by moving the court it wanted to prove that the Singur Land Rehabilitation & Development Act 2011 was “unconstitutional and should be declared void.”

Replying to the arguments by the government side that the company has abandoned the site and left for Gujarat, Sidhartha Mitra, the counsel who appeared on behalf of Tata Motors, said, “We have not abandoned the site. Tata Motors had paid the lease amount to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) till 2012 and was spending Rs 1 crore per month from 2008 onwards for protecting the property.”

In April this year, the company had renewed the lease for Singur land by another year even after the Nano production was well underway in Sanand, Gujarat. The agreement was that Tata Motors would pay Rs 1 crore every year for the first five years of its 90-year lease agreement with WBIDC. “In fact, we were compelled to shift the project from Singur, with the permission of the government,” he added.

This comes on a day when the company has got stay order from the Supreme Court directed the state government “not to hand over or return land to farmers concerned until further order passed by the Calcutta High Court.” The firm moved the Supreme Court yesterday after the high court had refused to pass an interim stay order observing that the Tata Motors petition had no specific statement as to when the process of land distribution would start.

Meanwhile, it clarified before the high court that the petition was filed before the court pleading that the Singur act was “unconstitutional and should be declared void” and not related to the ownership of the land.

Citing that there are other projects in the state where land is acquired but not used, Mitra said the Act is “company specific and hostile.”

While replying to the government submission that material facts were suppressed by the company, it said in the petition it has not “suppressed anything before the court” and has submitted all the informations that was there up to the time the petition was filed.