Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday spoke in a vanquisher’s tone circuitously asking the Tatas to remove their belongings (read the factory shed and equipment) from the erstwhile Nano site at Singur failing which the Government will strictly follow the Supreme Court order and do the needful.
The Chief Minister who would in compliance of the apex court order on Wednesday distribute 800 cheques of compensation to the unwilling farmers of Singur whose land had been forcibly acquired by the then left Front Government said Finance Minister Amit Mitra had been asked to contact the Tatas so that they could take away their belongings from Singur.
“The order should be taken sportingly and I think they (the Tatas) are also in the know of the order and so we will expect them to remove their belongings to facilitate the work of returning the lands to the farmers” she said reminding “the land now belongs to the farmers and no one is in between so they will get what is rightfully theirs.”
There were some belongings of the other party in the acquired land Banerjee said without naming the Tatas and asked them to “remove the obstructions and take them away failing which the Government will do its job removing them and restoring the land to the farmers. The Government will keep their belongings in some place from where they can take that in future.”
The whole process of dismantling the shed and removal of other equipment would be video-graphed she said.
The Chief Minister who had been unusually cordial to the Tatas for the past few days and had even requested their representatives in Munich where she had been recently in quest of investment to make Bengal their destination said she had no personal grudge against anyone and that she was only following the Apex Court order which had directed the restoration of Singur lands in 12 week’s time.
A vast land of 997 acres had been acquired by the left Government. Subsequently a law suit followed. Though the Tatas won in the High Court the Supreme Court reversed the order directing the State to return the land as it felt that legal procedures had not been followed while hastily acquiring the land.
The CM will distribute 600 cheques to the farmers on Tuesday. She said out of 997 acres about 620 acres had been surveyed and measured and the plotting work was on. “After the encroachments (read Tata sheds) are removed we will be able to restore the lands of the farmers in their original cultivable condition. The Trinamool Congress will observe September 14 as the Singur victory day.