Bengal to give land possession to Singur farmers before Oct 21

The West Bengal government is set to provide physical possession of land to Singur farmers before October 21, senior state Minister Partha Chattopadhyay said on Thursday.

"We are happy with the progress. We hope we will be able to start the process of giving physical possession of land before October 21, after getting a green signal from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Most land has been made cultivable except 75 acres," said Chattopadhyay after a meeting with district officials at Singur.

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

"In the initial phases, we are targeting to provide physical land possession for about 200 acres," a district official told IANS.

The Supreme Court, on August 31, struck down the land acquisition made by the erstwhile Left Front government for the small car factory and ordered the land be returned to the cultivators within 12 weeks.

Redeeming a pledge she made years back, Banerjee had returned 9,117 land records to farmers and compensated 800 peasants from whom land had been taken against their wishes.

--IANS

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