West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced the setting up an agro industrial park in Singur, the town that had become synonymous with fight against land acquisition in the Left front government .
The announcement, which comes six months before Assembly polls and nine and a half years into the Trinamool Congress regime, has raised many eyebrows in the political circles. Ms. Banerjee said no land would be acquired for the project and land would be allotted to industrial houses who wanted to set up facilities at the industrial park.
Singur was the site of the proposed small car project of Tata Motors in the seventh Left Front rule. After the Tatas decided to leave the project site in October 2008, the semi- constructed shed on the nearly 996 acres remained for almost eight years. Singur had become a symbol of anti-land acquisition movement and paved the way for Ms. Banerjee’s rise to power in 2011.
After a 2016 Supreme Court order , which declared the land acquisition to be illegal, the land was returned to farmers by the Trinamool Congress government with much fanfare. However, the farmers claimed that the land acquired for the industry was not cultivable any more. In July 2019, Ms. Banerjee informed the Assembly that compared to the last financial year, where about 641 acres was cultivated, this financial year only 260 acres was cultivated in Singur.
The Opposition parties raised questions on the announcement when there are only few months to the elections.
“She will have to repent for the doom she has brought to Bengal. Neither did the youths get employment from the industry nor could the farmers cultivate land. Where was she for 10 years? Now there is no time left for her to correct her wrongs as elections are only a few months away,” Leader of the Left Legislature party and CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakraborty said.
BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya said industry would be set up in Singur not by Mamata Banerjee but by a BJP government in West Bengal.
Deep-sea port at Tajpur
Ms. Banerjee also announced the setting up of a deep-sea port at Tajpur in Purba Medinipur. She said the government would call for expression of interest (EOI) from all major players who could develop the port. An investment of ₹15000 crore would come to the State through this project, she claimed.
Tajpur is located in Purba Medinipur district not far from Nandigram, which had also turned into another flashpoint of forcible land acquisition in 2007-08.