Supreme Court cancels Singur land acquisition for Tata Nano factory

Mangalore Today/ PTI

New Delhi, Aug 31, 2016: The Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled the West Bengal government’s acquisition of land for the Tata Nano factory in Singur and asked it to take possession of the land and distribute it to the farmers within 12 weeks.

The apex court has said that the land acquisition by the CPI (M) government was not for "public purpose" and hence should be distributed among its rightful owners.

The ruling added that the farmers do not have to return the compensation they received from the government because they were deprived of their livelihood for a decade, ANI reported.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the SC ruling as a "landmark decision" and said: "I am remembering those people who made sacrifices fighting for this. This is a landmark victory after we thought of the new name for State of West Bengal. I am very happy with the decision. I will call for a strategy meeting tomorrow at 4 p.m. I would expect everyone to celebrate this Singur utsav, its like an invocation of the celebration to Durga Puja. I had dreamt of this SC verdict for so long, for the people of Singur. Now I can die in peace."

She also added that West Bengal is the final industrial destination.

The dispute between the West Bengal government and Tata Motors Ltd. over the Tata Nano car factory, which was supposed to be set up in Singur in 2006, has been going on since five years.

The pleas of the Tatas, West Bengal government and farmers of Singur were heard by Justice Gopala Gowda and Justice Arun Kumar Mishra, while the special leave petitions were heard by the apex court. Two sets of cases, one of which was filed by a legal activist Joydeep Mukherjee and the land owners of Singur, had requested the court to declare that the land acquisition was bad in law, the Times of India reported.

The Bengal government, then led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had allotted around 1,000 acres to Tata Motors Ltd. to set up the factory. However, the project was shelved following protests by aggrieved farmers, activists and the Trinamool Congress Party.

Banerjee had also gone on a 26-day long hunger strike to protest against the land acquisition. The compensation offered to the displaced farmers by the Tatas were apparently inadequate considering the big promises they made.

Banerjee, after coming to power, passed the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, to take over the land given to the Tatas by the previous government.

Tata Motors Ltd. moved the Kolkata High Court challenging the law, following which the acquisition was upheld by the trial court. However, the act passed by the Banerjee government was declared unconstitutional on appeal, Mint reported. The matter was then taken to the Supreme Court.

A lot was at stake for Banerjee who had during the state assembly polls promised that all the displaced farmers who did not receive the compensation would get their 400 acres of land back. Even though nothing has happened on that front, the chief minister, who succeeded in driving the Tatas out of Bengal to Gujarat, has always said that she does not have a problem with Tata Motors setting up the car factory as long as the land of the farmers is returned to them.

However, the plight of the farmers and the youth in Singur tells a different story. The fate of thousands of them remains undecided since the tussle over the factory began.

The setting up of the factory would have provided employment to thousands of farmers and youths seeking jobs. But the shifting of the factory to Gujarat has left them in a lurch.