Nearly one-fifth of over 11,000 land owners ‘affected’ during acquisition of the now-relocated Tata Nano plant in Singur are untraceable.
The former Left Front government acquired 998 acres of land for the car project in 2006. As the TMC government started returning land parcels to their original owners, armed with a Supreme Court verdict, there came out the startling fact: there are no claimants for a reasonable part of the land.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rolled out the land redistribution programme at Singur, some 50 km from the city.
Addressing the meeting, Sanjay Bansal, district magistrate of Hooghly, said ownership of some 2,300-odd owners in Singur could not be traced. “We have distributed 10,000 plus parchas (land deeds). Some 2,300-odd cannot be traced,” he said.
Later, speaking to BusinessLine , the district magistrate pointed out that of 9,200-odd “willing” land losers, some 6,900 have claimed their ownership. The remaining 2,300 cannot be traced.
“Perhaps there has been a change in address or some relocation. We are figuring that out,” he said.
In case of the 2,500 unwilling farmers – who actually spearheaded the anti-land grab agitation in the area – deeds and cheques have “not yet been issued” to 600 such farmers. It is still not known whether they too fall in this “untraceable” category.
“Around 4,400 compensation cheques covering 1,915 unwilling farmers have been issued,” Bansal said.
This apart, police verification into 15-odd cases to determine rightful ownership is also on.
Land Possession The State government had kick-started the land-return process in September this year by handing over the land deeds. Today, it gave physical possession of land.
The first batch of 298 farmers got possession of 100 acres of land with the Chief Minister overseeing the programme. This land, she claimed, are in “cultivable form”.
“Farmers will start taking possession tomorrow onwards. Around 50-odd acres will be handed out every day by the district administration,” she said.
According to Banerjee, nearly 952 acres (out of 998 acres) are already in “cultivable form” and the entire stretch will be retuned in cultivable condition by November 10.
“We are looking at a time of around November 8. Otherwise by November 10, all farmers will get possession of the land,” she said.
Mustard seeds and manure were distributed by the State government in its bid to support agricultural activity in the region. Other activities like setting up irrigation facilities and so on, will also be put up.