-The Telegraph
Sources said the Bengal government was keen to wrap up all the paperwork so that the plots could be immediately handed over to farmers if Calcutta High Court ruled in the state’s favour.
“I want the survey completed within three days. If necessary, continue the survey at night with lights,” Chatterjee was quoted as saying at a meeting this evening in the Hooghly district magistrate’s office.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had asked the state not to hand over any plot till further orders from the high court, which is hearing Tata Motors’ petition against the government’s new land-takeover law. The high court has said it would try to keep the apex court’s request for a verdict within a month.
If the judgment favours her, chief minister Mamata Banerjee wants the plots back with the farmers before Tata Motors has an opportunity to appeal before a high court division bench or the Supreme Court, the sources said.
They said Chatterjee was annoyed to learn that the survey, which began on Tuesday, had completed only one mouza, Gopalnagar, in four days. Now the surveyors will have just three days to cover the four remaining mouzas: Bajemelia, Singherbheri, Beraberi and Khaserbheri.
Chatterjee, who heads the 19-member committee set up to facilitate the land return, told reporters: “We held an administrative meeting to review the progress of the survey. We have asked the officials to complete the survey quickly. I can’t say anything more as the matter is sub judice.”
Those at the meeting included district magistrate Sripriya Rengarajan, superintendent of police Tanmoy Roychowdhuri, Singur MLA and school education minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya, Haripal MLA Becharam Manna, Hooghly MP Ratna Nag, block development officer (BDO) Pulak Sarkar and several gram panchayat and panchayat samity heads.
Some 115 application forms for the return of land were submitted at the BDO’s office today, taking the number of filled-in forms to 1,705. That leaves about 1,100 more to be submitted by the farmers.
The government put up three notices at the BDO’s office, saying the acquired plots in Khaserbheri, Beraberi and Bajemelia had been vested under the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011. Yesterday, similar notices were put up for Singherbheri and Gopalnagar.