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National

Yeddyurappa offer adds to West Bengal pressure

Marcus Dam

Mamata intransigent despite government offering package for sustained economic rehabilitation of farmers

Kolkata: With Karnataka offering Tata Motors required land and incentives if the company relocates its Nano car project from Singur, pressure mounts on the West Bengal government to find a way out of the gridlock on the land acquisition issue.

With Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee not budging from her stand that 300 acres from within the 997.11-acre project area be handed back to around 2,200 farmers who have not accepted compensation (for their plots acquired), the question now is whether the government is headed for a dead-end in its efforts at ending the impasse.

Appeal falls on deaf ears

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s most recent appeal — on Wednesday — to Ms. Banerjee’s “conscience” and his plea to her “to see reason and please allow us to set up” the project at Singur, where construction work began in January 2007, has fallen on deaf ears.

Acceding to her demand will be tantamount to giving up the project. Both Tata Motors and the government have been emphatic on the need for maintaining the integrated character of the mother plant and the vendor park if the project is to be viable. Unconvinced, Ms. Banerjee remains in agitation mode. As early as September 2 Tata Motors authorities, while announcing suspension of work at Singur in view of the “continued confrontation and agitation at the site,” said “a detailed plan to relocate the plant and machinery to an alternative site is under preparation.” G. Ravikanth, managing director, confirmed this following his meeting with Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in Bangalore on Thursday.

Government accommodative

The Trinamool leader remains intransigent despite the government “going to its furthest limits,” offering a package comprising schemes for a sustained economic rehabilitation of around 13,000 farmers whose land has been acquired for the project as well as additional monetary compensation.

This apart, the Chief Minister has prevailed on Tata Motors to concede about 30 acres from the project site, to which 40 acres belonging to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation has been appended in response to Ms. Banerjee’s demand that land be returned to those she describes as “unwilling farmers.”

Ms. Banerjee and her associates who have been behind the agitation remain as adamant as they were when a dharna was launched outside the project site on August 24 — the only difference since then being that she has sat for three rounds of talks with the Chief Minister (twice in the presence of Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on September 7).

Hopes dashed

The discussions, preceded by separate talks between the Governor, the government and leaders spearheading the agitation, raised hopes which, however, crashed in days. Ms. Banerjee now threatens to resume her agitation — a move that could well sound the death knell for the Singur project.

All eyes on Trinamool

“The grace of accommodation is not unavailable in the most obdurate of situations,” the Governor wrote in one of his letters to Ms. Banerjee (August 29) seeking initiation of the process of dialogue. The government, in its various offers, has shown that it is not beyond this spirit of accommodation. All eyes are now on the Trinamool leadership even as the future of the Tata project at Singur hangs by a thread.

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