Singur Bill passed in WB Assembly; Opposite walks out

A bill seeking to empower the West Bengal government to return land in Singur to farmers was on Tuesday passed by the Assembly amidst a walkout by members of the Opposition Left parties.

The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, was passed by voice vote along with some amendments brought by the government.

When the Bill was put to vote by Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay, the Left MLAs, who cited legal loopholes in the legislation, walked out of the House.

Speaking on the Bill, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it had been brought to undo the injustice meted out to the farmers whose land was forcefully acquired in 2006 for setting up Tata Motor's Nano car manufacturing unit.

She said her government did not want to divide the 'willing' and 'unwilling' farmers, but the situation had forced them to resort to the measure. Banerjee said the land could be returned if the farmers were willing to get it back.

Stating that the Left members could raise the issue of technicalities in the Bill, she charged that they could not carry out the exercise of returning the land during their tenure.

Banerjee also said she wanted to know from the Left members why they were losing patience so soon.

Mishra, belonging to CPI(M), raised the point of order saying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during her speech in the debate, did not reply to the legal issues raised by him in relation to the Bill.

Participating in the two-hour discussion on the Bill, the Chief Minister said it had been brought to "undo the injustice" meted out to the people.

She said her government did not want to drive a wedge between 'willing' and 'unwilling' farmers but the situation forced it to resort to it.

She said the names of the willing farmers had not been recorded.

Meanwhile, the Tatas said they were studying the Singur Bill passed by the West Bengal Assembly.

"We are studying the Singur Bill which was passed today," a spokesman of the Tata Group said.

Stating that land could be returned if there was a will and dismissing the Opposition plea to withhold the bill for further scrutiny, Banerjee said her government's first priority was to legally return the land to unwilling farmers.

Saying that the Left Front could have taken the same decision of returning the land to unwilling farmers, Banerjee said that it had to be done fast and every minute now was important "to us".

The chief minister said all decisions taken by the previous Left Front government for 35 years were unjust and Bengal had lagged behind.

Countering Mishra's suggestion of amending the Land Acquisition Act 1894 as had been done in Tamil Nadu to return acquired land to farmers, Banerjee said the amendment allowed only leasing of land to farmers.

The state government, on the other hand, was keen on returning the land with full rights to unwilling farmers, she said.

The Bill cited non-commissioning and abandonment of the Tata Motors' small car project and ancillary factories as the main reason for scrapping the lease deal with the Tatas.

It sought to vest the powers with the district magistrate of Hooghly for repossessing the land along with other immovable assets standing on it.

The district magistrate has also been authorised to take steps and use "such force" as deemed necessary to take possession of the land.

The amount of compensation which would be given to Tata Motors would be decided by the district judge, Hooghly and would carry a simple interest of six per cent per annum.

Speaking to reporters later in the day, Leader of Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra expressed doubt whether the Bill would meet the objective of the government as it was fraught with "technical shortcomings".

Alleging that the chief minister has misled the House by stating that the land was acquired through the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, Mishra said the present Bill was a standalone one and was sure to come into conflict with Central acts like Transfer of Property Act and Contract Act.

There was also no way to distinguish between willing and unwilling farmers and the Bill was "ultra vires of the Constitution", he said.

Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters that CPI(M) had used "brute police force" to acquire land from farmers at Singur and the walk-out showed "they are still anti-peasant".

He said that the Left Front had created a drama by claiming they supported the Bill which sought to return the land to unwilling farmers.

"We thought that after the ignominious defeat in the polls, CPI(M) will do some soul searching. But today's incident shows that they have not changed themselves. What they preach, they do not do," he said.