The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill 2011 by voice vote after the Opposition Left Front had walked out of the House. This will pave the way for the return of land to Singur’s unwilling farmers of Singur. The House electronic clock read 3:14:20 when Speaker Biman Banerjee announced the bill had been passed.
“It is a historic bill. I congratulate every person who was associated with the land movement in Singur. We will return land to the unwilling farmers. We are not giving this land on lease; they will get rights to the land,” announced a delighted chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who as Trinamul Congress president had spearheaded the Singur movement. The Left Front, which had claimed to support the bill in principle, later staged a walkout from the House after it was discussed on the floor.
“I raised some constitutional questions which were left unanswered. The government is misleading the House,” said Leader of the Opposition Suryakanta
Mishra after raising a point of order, which the Speaker disallowed. In protest, the Left Front members left the House.
According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the state government, in the public interest, considered it necessary to take back ownership of the entire land (997.11 acres) from Tata Motors and its vendors and to take steps urgently for the return of land to unwilling farmers who had not accepted any compensation. The remaining portion of the land will be utilised in the public interest for the socio-economic development of the state. The bill says the land has been lying unutilised for over three years as Tata Motors had not commissioned and “abandoned” the small car project.
Clarifying its position, Tata Motors said in a statement: “An appeal was made on August 22, 2008 for a congenial environment, which was rebuffed with an escalation of hostilities through a blockade on the highway, more incidents of physical assault and intimidation of personnel. Therefore, Tata Motors did not find the situation congenial to continue its operations, and there being no guarantee of a safe and peaceful environment, had to reluctantly close operations on October 3, 2008, and eventually moved out.” The company also said it had made investments of around `440 crores on the Singur land, besides similar investments about `171 crores by its vendors.
Participating in the discussion on the bill, former land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said: “We support the bill in principle. However, the bill contains some flaws which need to be rectified, otherwise the sole objective of returning the land will not be achieved. I also request the government not to make any division between willing and unwilling farmers, and return the land to everyone.” Going a step further, Dr Mishra feared that the bill would not get the consent of the President.
State commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee, who moved the bill, responded: “The Left Front proved today that they were anti-farmer. The bill has been passed by the House and appropriate procedures will be followed in accordance with the law to make it an act.”