VP Singh's doubts on Singur land to be cleared

Kolkata, Oct 16: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee today said that all doubts expressed by former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh regarding acquisition of multiple crop land for Tata's small car project in Singur will be resolved by him.

''I have already received the letter from Dr Singh and read its contents. I will reply to it by tonight,'' the chief minister said here when his attention was drawn to the 'controversial' letter of Dr Singh expressing concern at the "burning problem in the state".

Without giving much credence to the raising of the controversial issue by none other than a former Prime Minister in an effort to bring in a national perspective to the issue and asking questions about the usefulness of the Rs 1000 crore project, Mr Bhattacherjee said he was confident of clearing all doubts raised by Dr Singh.

Incidentally, the state government decided to handover 996 acres of land to the Tata Motors for its proposed small car manufacturing unit at Singur in Hoogly district and had reiterated that only about 10 per cent of the whole area falls under the category of crop land.

Most of the farmers in the area had already given their consent and collected cheques from the state government in this regard making the acquisition of the required land almost certain.

UNI