A day after West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan gave his assent, the State government on Tuesday issued a notification to turn the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill into law. Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said the notification would be followed by the framing of rules by a committee, which would determine the process to return an equivalent portion of land to the “unwilling” farmers of Singur. Their land was acquired by the earlier government for the now abandoned Tata Motors' small car project.
This marks the end of the first rapid fire round of events, set in motion by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's announcement on day one of her coming to power, that her Cabinet had decided to return the land at Singur.
After efforts to kickstart the process through an ordinance failed, a Bill was moved on June 13 and passed a day later, with eight amendments, in an Assembly bereft of any Opposition party.
This happened after a walkout by the Opposition led by the CPI(M)
