Mamata government moves fast on Singur land return

Kolkata, Sep 3: Braving incessant rain and employing drones and satellite mapping technology, the West Bengal government is carrying out the survey expeditiously for initiating the process of returning land taken from peasants of Singur for the Tata Motors Nano project, an official said on Saturday.

Following the Supreme Court verdict, the Mamata Banerjee government started the land survey within the project area on Friday. The survey is to be completed within ten weeks.

"So far, we have cleaned up and cut wild grasses and bushes in about 150 acres of land in the project area. We will have to make requisite arrangements so that works can be done at night," said Hooghly's Additional District Magistrate (Land Revenue) Purnendu Maji.

"We are taking the help of drone and GPS satellite mapping for aerial survey and works for plotting is expected to commence in a day or two," he said.

State Education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee visited the site on Saturday.

Later interacting with media persons, Chatterjee said Chief Minister Banerjee will visit Singur and hold a public meeting on September 14.

After the Supreme Court quashed the land acquisition done by the erstwhile left Front government, Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool supremo, on Thursday had chaired a high level emergency meeting at the state secretariat Nabanna to decide on follow-up actions for implementing the judicial order.

Banerjee said physical possession of cultivable land would be given to the land owners within the stipulated time frame of 12 weeks.

Singur lawmaker Rabindranath Bhattacharya said: "The government is committed to return the land to farmers within the stipulated time. Officials of Land and Land Revenue department and Directorate of Land Records and Surveys have been working at a war footing."

IANS