Nirupam Sen announces rehab package for Singur farmers

Kolkata, Jun 19(UNI) Ruling out the possibility of returning land to the Singur farmers, West Bengal Industry Minister Nirupam Sen today announced a comprehensive economic rehabilitation package for the people, displaced by the Tata Motors' small car project.

Stating that the package, largely comprising different training schemes, was aimed at getting people involved in the economic activities in the area, Mr Sen asserted that there was no question either of shifting the project or offering an extra cost for the land to farmers.

'' There is no question of returning land or shifting the factory.

There are legal hurdles...it is not also possible to offer extra cost for land to a section of farmers. The Government does not want to differentiate in terms of compensation between those who have given land willingly and those who are unwilling,'' he told reporters at the State Secretariat.

Resenting the package, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee demanded immediate dismissal of the Left Front Government for 'indiscriminate' grabbing of farmers' land and reiterated that her movement in Singur would continue.

'' This package is a passage deal the Government wants to strike to pave way for the Tatas to set up factory at Singur. The Government is misleading the people and it should be dismissed,'' she said.

She had gone into a huddle with veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu at his residence early this month, raising her demand that about 400 out of a total 950 acres, acquired for the small car project, be returned to the original owners whose land had been taken without consent.

Though willing to buy peace with Ms Banerjee for the sake of overall industrialisation, poised for getting a momentum in the state, the government found it difficult to return any portion of the acquired land as it would jeopardise the whole project.

Assuring that the ''acquired land in Singur would be utilised only for setting up the proposed car factory, and not any shopping mall,'' the Industry Minister appealed to the opposition to extend cooperation to the move for industrialisation.

Detailing the package, he said, altogether 2,851 of the affected people in Singur, including 703 women, had already been enlisted for technical education and training in computer, catering, tailoring and driving so that they were able to earn livelihood in alternative fields.

Of these people, 350 were already being imparted technical training in different ITIs and some others were getting computer training in National Institute of Information Technology(NIIT). They would be given advance training in the Tata Motors' facility before being selected for suitable jobs in the car factory, he said.

In a bid to enable the others to get the benefit of the project, a number of women had already been trained in catering to set up a canteen for the prospective employees of the car factory, while a section of the local villagers were now undergoing training for apparel manufacturing in an institute run by the Central Government, Mr Sen said.

Denying that the government had acquired land more than that was needed for the proposed factory, Mr Sen said the requirement of Tata Motors was 1,400 acres while the land taken for the project in Singur was only 950 acres.

UNI