Bengal to begin Singur land handover to farmers from Thursday

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the process to hand over physical possession of land at Singur to farmers will begin from Thursday.

"We are trying to complete the process within 10 weeks following the Supreme Court order to return the land to the cultivators within 12 weeks," she said.

"The process to hand over physical possession will begin from Thursday (October 20). I will also be present there," Banerjee said after a meeting with ministers and top government officials.

"As much as 80 per cent of the land has been made cultivable. There is existence of concrete in 36 acres. The government departments will continue their work to make this land (36 acres) cultivable too," she added.

The Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over the work done by the government officials and ministers in this regard.

The Supreme Court on August 31 struck down the land acquisition by the erstwhile Left Front government in west Bengal for the small car factory promoted by Tata Group and ordered the land to be returned to the cultivators.

On September 29, Banerjee, during a Hooghly district administrative meeting, set an October 21 dateline to remove all constructions from the Tata Nano project area as the state government was given the responsibility by the Supreme Court to return the land to farmers.

As she promised years ago, Banerjee last month returned land records to farmers and compensated peasants from whom the land had been taken against their wishes.

--IANS

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