Physical possession given for 846 acres of Singur land: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday visited the site of the erstwhile Nano project site in Singur of Hooghly district and declared that farmers have already been given physical possession of 846 acres of the total 997.11 acres of land acquired for the small car factory.

"We have already returned 846 acres of land. There is some dispute with regard to 71 acres of the remaining land. Some fake people seem to have taken the compensation money against this land or the land record itself is not there," said Banerjee, who went round the area to congratulate the district administration for carrying out the task of returning land within the time given.

She had kicked off the process of returning land on October 20.

Banerjee, who had spearheaded the anti-land acquisition protests from 2006-2008 as the supremo of Trinamool Congress, commenced cultivation in a symbolic gesture by sowing a mustard seed last month.

A division bench of Justices Arun Mishra and V. Gopala Gowda of the Supreme Court on August 31, directed that the land be returned to the farmers of Singur within 12 weeks. The court-stipulated time-frame will expire by November-end.

The land had been acquired by the state's erstwhile Left Front government in 2006 for the Tata Motors' factory.

However, following a sustained and violent agitation by the peasants led by then main opposition Trinamool Congress led by Banerjee, the Tatas announced in October, 2008, the project will be shifted out of Singur. Later, the Nano was rolled out from Sanand in Gujarat.

--IANS

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