Singur: 25 pc compensation to share croppers

Singur (W Bengal),Feb 28: The unrecorded share-croppers of the acquired agricultural land for the Tatas' small car project in Singur will get 25 per cent of the total compensation, Hooghly District Magistrate Vinod Kumar today said.

He said altogether 170 such people, who used to till the land before acquisition, would get the benefit subject to application to the local Block Development Officer within 15 days.

For the 997 acres of land acquired for the project, the West Bengal Government had earlier announced compensation for the owners and the recorded share croppers. However, a decision was taken to extend the compensation package also to the marginal farmers whose names were not on record for some reasons, following a prolonged movement by the opposition and a review of the whole arrangement by the Government.

Informing that construction of internal roads and the boundary wall along the acquired land was continuing in full swing, the District Magistrate said altogether 2,348 villagers had been engaged in the work.

He said about 80 per cent work for the boundary wall had already been completed while construction of roads was in an advanced stage.

UNI