Singur deadlock ends; Now its Tata's turn

Singur, Sep 8: The stalemate over acquisition of land for the Tata Motors project at Singur ended on Sunday, Sep 7 night, following two rounds of discussions between Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and the peacemaker, Gopal Krishna Gandhi the Bengal governor.

The two-year-old Singur crisis was after a land-for-land agreement was reached between the Chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, capping three days of hard-nosed bargaining. Meanwhile, Tatas are still assessing the compromise formula. Tata Motors is still maintaining the status quo on the Singur situation. The work in the vendor park has not begun yet, which means the project still hangs. This means that Tata is likely to go ahead with Plan B in any case to meet October-December rollout deadline. Sources from Tata indicate that they will wait for the committee's modalities for one week.

Bengal governor Gopal Kirshna Gandhi who worked as a mediator between the government and Trinamool Congress said to media at Raj Bhavan that the government would return the land of all those farmers who were not compensated, most of which are within the premises of Tata Motors Nano car factory in Singur.

Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress leader in-turn, announced the immediate withdrawal of her party's two-year-old agitation on the issue and the fortnight-long sit-in demonstration at the factory site. A committee would be set up to work out modalities of returning the land of the farmers who have not got the compensation within a week during which government ordered suspension of all construction work in the units of the car factory, Gandhi said reading from a prepared document of understanding reached between the two sides.

The Governor announced the breakthrough in the impasse in the presence of the Chief Minister and the Trinamool Congress chief at the end of a series of of meetings including the first-ever talks between Buddhadeb and Mamata.

The two-day talks was at the verge of collapse on Sunday, Sep 7 following a last-minute demand by Mamata that land of all farmers acquired of vendors of ancillary units of the Tata Nano car plant at Singur be returned. The sudden near-breakdown of talks was, however, resolved at the initiative of Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who has been chairing the talks since Friday, Sep 5.

After the breakthrough Mamata claimed 'total victory' for her party. It is also a victory of farmers she added.

OneIndia News