Those who parted with their land for the now abandoned Tata Motors Nano small car project have begun dreaming again after the victory of the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance in the Assembly polls.
The land-losers took out a rally on Friday at the site of the project abandoned in 2008 after the Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee demanded that 400 acres of the land be returned to farmers who had unwilling parted with their land.
The rally was organised by marginal farmers, sharecroppers and land owners of Khaserbheri, Beraberi and Gopalnagar, who did not receive compensation cheques for their land.
Ratan Ghosh, who owns 12 bighas of land at Ghoshpara in Gopalnagar, said, “Nobody came forward except ‘Didi’ to support us. I was a landowner. After the land acquisition our family became daily labourers. I did not receive a compensation cheque.
“I have a family of 16 whom I now look after by selling milk. I demand return of my multi-crop land,” he told PTI.
Ashok Ghosh, who owns 1.5 bighas said he had never supported the Tata Motors project. “Outsiders had good jobs and not the poor people.”
Bikash Pakira of Joymollah village, a marginal farmer, said he had been trained at the Tata Motors training centre at Pune and the Ramkrishna Mission Shipa Mandir at Belur in Howrah district. “But I am a daily labourer now,” he rued.
Krishna Ghosh, owner of 65 bighas at Ghoshpara, Gopalnagar is a Trinamool Congress supporter and had joined the Singur movement. He had also become a supervisor at the Tata Motors medical unit.
“My dream was to see Didi as chief minister, but I also demand that the project returns.”
He blamed the Left Front government for failure to set up the car unit. “The government did not consult us. They could not set up a factory. Some of our land was proclaimed as water bodies when the land was multi-crop land.”
They all, however, said that hopes had regenerated with the victory of the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance.
