-The Telegraph
A total of 886 forms have been submitted to the block development office till 7.30pm today.
“Yesterday, 311 farmers had submitted their forms. Today, 575 more applications were received,” said Pulak Sarkar, the Singur block development officer. The last date for submission of forms is July 22.
Becharam Manna, the Trinamul Congress MLA from Haripal who is also a member of the committee set up to facilitate the land return, held a meeting with local party MP Ratna Nag and panchayat and save-farmland committee leaders to discuss ways of expediting the process.
“We hope to complete the process of form submission within the next few days. We hope that the land will be returned much before July 22. The farmers will begin cultivation soon. Mamata Banerjee will come and sow the first seeds,” Manna said.
Additional district magistrate Rabindranath Jana today inspected the Singur factory site. “A team of 50 surveyors will tomorrow measure the land to mark the 400 acres that will be returned to the farmers who had not collected their compensation cheques,” he said.
District officials said the forms, which have the personal and land details of the farmers, were being scrutinised. The forms are being scrutinised under three categories: A, B and C. The A category is land without any encumbrance, B is where mutation is pending and C where there is litigation.
“The A-category forms are being sent directly to the district magistrate for scrutiny. We are trying to solve the mutation problems. About 44 acres are involved in litigation. These cases will also be scrutinised,” a district official said.
A section of Singur farmers who had parted with their land willingly today said they did not want any other factory but the Tata Nano plant to come up on the plot.
Sheikh Lutfar Rahman, a Joymollah resident who had given one-and-a-half acres for the project, said he would demand his plot back if the Nano project did not come up in Singur. “I will not tolerate it if the plot I had parted with is given to some unwilling farmer. I will not let that person cultivate the land. There may be law-and-order problems,” said Lutfar, 52, who now supplies building material.
Another farmer, Sheikh Sohrab, 34, said: “I am even willing to return the Rs 1.5-lakh compensation I had received. But if any industry has to come up in Singur, it has to be by the Tatas.”