Tatas ready to return Singur land

Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata said on Tuesday that Tata Motors was ready to return Singur land if West Bengal government compensated the company for the investments it had made, adding that the company had no plans for Singur at the moment.

"We are ready to cooperate with the state government if it had any plans with the land," he said.

Asked whether the state government had given any fresh proposal regarding the land, he said that there were no proposals from either side.

The company had to abandon the project last October after Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, organised a prolonged agitation. Banerjee's main demand was that 400 acres of land would have to be returned to unwilling farmers.

However, according to state government estimates, unwilling farmers that account for less than 20 per cent of the total number of land losers have 181 acres. Of the total area of 997 acres, the mother plant required around 650 acres while the vendor park was spread over 290 acres.

Banerjee demanded that the vendor park would have to be relocated while Tata Motors and the state government maintained that the integrated nature of the project could not be changed.

The company had earlier announced that it had made an investment of around Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion).

Addressing the media to announce the pullout, Tata had said he would have really loved to launch the Rs 100,000 Nano from Bengal, but well-being of the employees, and safety of contractors and vendors prompted his decision to relocate.

Stating that Mamata was to blame for the Nano pullout, Tata had said, "To the best of my knowledge, the land was acquired legally... it was done transparently and the compensation was based fairly.

"We have not been a party to any land dispute. It is between West Bengal government and Trinamool Congress."

Last year, after deciding to shift the Nano factory from Bengal to Gujarat, the Tatas promised the state government that they would transfer all the machinery from the project compound in Singur by the first quarter of 2009-2010.

According to Left Front insiders, the Tatas had paid the lease amount for the land till 2009. Left Front sources also informed rediff.com on Tuesday afternoon that industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen has started looking for investors for
the Singur land.

It may be recxalled that there were strong rumours that Singur might be home to another small car, one that is likely to cost between Rs 150,000 and Rs 200,000.

Though there was no official confirmation, Left Front sources too had told rediff.com that the state government was planning to offer the disputed 'Nano land' to another car manufacturer.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee recently said at the flag-off of Andolan Local - an all-stop train between Singur and Howrah - that she had requested the central government to allow the Railways to set up a wagon factory on the undisputed 600 acres.

That could be a far cry, legally. State government sources said, if the land was returned then the government could either use it for some other public purpose or auction it.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia had also told Business Standard recently that his party and government want an automobile industry to come up on that land and not some Rail factory:

"We want to make Bengal an automobile hub. Singur land will be used for a modern automobile industry. A Railway factory will not serve any useful purpose."

Though Banerjee could not be contacted, her colleague, state Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee told rediff.com, "The entire Singur episode is an enigma shrouded in mystery. No one knows anything about the deal that was signed between the Tatas and the government.

"It's a shame that in this age of Right to Information, the state government shamelessly hid the clauses of the deal from the people. Singur episode is a blemish on the history of mankind."