Bengal exploring other ways to resolve Singur land impasse

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The West Bengal government on Monday said it was exploring ways other than legal to transfer land to unwilling farmers in Singur days after the Calcutta High Court struck down the Singur land act, while a state minister said he favoured talks with the Tatas to break the impasse.

"By keeping the legal path open we are also pondering if there is any other way to resolve the Singur land impasse," Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters.

The minister stopped short of disclosing what he meant by the ‘other way’ the state government was looking at, but said, "The state government was committed to return the land to 'unwilling' farmers, marginal farmers and 'bargadars' (share- croppers) at Singur."

He asserted that people had confidence in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and ‘we are keeping all doors open’.

Earlier during the day, Agriculture Minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya said he personally saw no harm in negotiating with the Tatas to find a solution to the land tangle in Singur.

"My personal opinion is that there is no harm in negotiating with the Tatas... We had talked in this line before... they (Tatas) do their work on 600 acres and return 400 acres to the farmers," Bhattacharya, who is an MLA from Singur, told reporters at the state secretariat.