Click to play videoThe stalemate over the Tata Motors small car project in Singur, West Bengal, continues with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee refusing to end her protest against the factory.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who on Monday again urged Banerjee to end her protest, has said the car project is vital for Bengal’s process and cannot be abandoned. "We have to solve the issue for the sake of industrialisation in the state. We can't let the Tatas to move out of West Bengal," he said.
Banerjee remains firm on her demand that 400 acres of farmland taken for ancillary units to the plant from "unwilling farmers" must be returned to the owners before she begins dialogue with the state government.
Opponents of the car project say their fight is for the farmer whose land is being taken away for industrialisation without his consent and fair compensation. People who want industries say farming can’t support the state’s economy for long and West Bengal must catch up on progress.
The state government had to abandon a plan to build a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Nandigram district after clashes between farmers and CPI-M workers last year.
Is Nandigram going to be repeated in Singur? Should farms be sacrificed for industrialisation? CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation to Derek O’Brien, quizmaster and spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress, Tarun Das, chief mentor of business chamber Confederation of Indian Industries, and Union Commerce Secretary G K Pillai.
Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Chittaroopa Palit was also on the show.
The opposition to the Tata car project in Singur is justified, said O’Brien. “The Trinamool Congress is pro-industry and pro-farmer but the Communists are pro-industry and they make no pretence of being pro-farmer. The basic issue is that the Chief Minister should have got the consensus of all shareholders and all people in Singur when he brought the Tatas here,” he said. “We want dialogue but first 400 acres of farmland taken from unwilling farmers must be returned.”
Are people like Mamata Banerjee and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar, an opponent of mega projects that displace people, blocking development or are they reminding the nation farmers and the poor must not be trampled over?
India’s land acquisition laws were enacted long ago and they have outlived their utility, said Pillai. “Recent agitations by farmers and landowners highlight the inadequacies of the land acquisition laws. This is something which needs urgent correction.”
Pillai suggested that governments and industries develop a plan which shares revenue generated from acquired land with farmers. Farmers and their families must also be trained so that they can join industries as workers.
Industry is not against farmers and the debate shouldn’t turn into a fight between them, said Das. Industry is reaching out to people and training them. “It is not about industry or farmers—it has to be win-win for both and everybody recognises that. Thousands of farmers have accepted the (Singur) deal and very few farmers have not accepted it. I am not sure whether their decision is voluntary.”
The government and industrialists’ claim that they are eager to share revenue with farmers is eyewash, said Palit. “We have studied the draft of the Land Acquisition Act and it is worse than the 1894 Act. The Supreme Court has ruled again and again that compensation paid for land has to be the best exemplars, but the government is now reducing it to make it average,” she claimed.
“The government’s new rehabilitation policy says land will be given to farmers as compensation if it is possible but land will be taken from them by force,” she said.
Das insisted that force would neither help farmers or industries. “Farmers and industries can work together. Mamata Banerjee has go public appeal, charisma and leadership. We must use that to bring people together,” he said.
O’Brien blamed the Bengal government for the impasse in Singur, claiming it hadn’t to create a consensus for the car factory. “If fighting for farmers is politics then so be it,” he said.
SMS poll on Singur land row: should farms be sacrificed for industrialisation?
No: 51 per cent
Yes: 49 per cent.
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