West Bengal governor signs Singur Bill

West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan today signed the Singur Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, which wants to return land to ‘unwilling’ farmers from whom it was taken for the small car project Tata Motors had proposed to set up in Singur.

The Mamata Banerjee-led government had passed the Bill in the Assembly on voice vote on June 14, amid a walkout by members of the opposition Left Front. According to legal experts, it is not clear whether the Bill will go to the President for his clearance. While some believe it does need a further consent as it is a state subject, others say it should be signed by the President as land is in the concurrent list.

“The Bill is in conflict with various central laws like the Transfer of Property Act and Contract Act. And matters of land acquisition and requisition is in the concurrent list, and so a state legislature cannot make a law without the President’s assent,” alleged CPI(M) leader Suryakanta Mishra, after the Bill was passed. Mishra is also the leader of the Opposition.

However, the Singur issue is far from being solved as willing farmers and vendors are weighing legal options.

The Trinamool Congress-led government today completed its first month in power.

Banerjee was sworn in as the state’s first woman chief minister on May 20. Since then, she remained in the news with measures like reaching an agreement with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on the Darjeeling statehood issue, her stance on the new land policy and the meeting with investors last week.

“They have completed a month, but have they started governing at all? Rather than acting as a responsible government, they are piling up expectations of the people,” alleged Goutam Deb, CPI(M) leader and former housing minister. “A majority of their works are verbal statements. They are further complicating problems in the state. Solution of the Darjeeling issue was a publicity stunt, while the industrial meeting was not properly coordinated,” he added.

Though Banerjee was able to strike a deal with the GJM, she were unable to unify different voices in the Hills, as parties like the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists and the Gorkha National Liberation Front called the ‘treaty’ as a ‘betrayal’.

Meanwhile, suggestions made by a two-member committee on land policy is causing jitters among industry circles. The committee suggested that for setting up industry, investors must acquire land directly from farmers at market rates with no government interference. It also suggested that cultivable land should not be used for industrial purposes.