Decision on timeline for giving possession to Singur farmers on Monday

The West Bengal government will hold a meeting on Monday to decide on the timeline to start the process of providing physical possession of land to Singur farmers, senior state Minister Partha Chattopadhyay said on Sunday.

"About 870 acres of land has been made cultivable. We will have a meeting on Monday at Nabanna (state secretariat) and I will submit a progress report to the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee). She will take the final decision on the timeline for starting the process of giving physical possession to farmers," he said after a meeting with Hooghly district officials here.

Chatterjee had ealier said he was happy with progress and hopeful to start the process of giving physical possession of land before October 21.

On September 29, Banerjee, in a Hooghly district administrative meeting, had set a 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.

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 ago, 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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