Mamata Banerjee government offered the Tatas 1,000-acres of industrial land in Goaltore in West Midnapore The announcement is ironic as the announcement was made on Singur divas, to celebrate the SC decision asking the government to return the land back to farmers. It was Banerjee's anti-land acquisition movement in Singur in November 2006 that forced Tatas out of West Bengal.
Mere a day after the Supreme Court decision to return the land taken from farmers for Tata Nano plant project in Singur, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal reportedly has offered to give the Tatas 1,000-acres of industrial land in Goaltore in West Midnapore.
According to The Telegraph report, the West Bengal government has given the Tatas a month's time to "think a little".
This proposal is quite a U-turn for the Trinamool Congress. It should be noted that it was Banerjee's anti-land acquisition movement in Singur in November 2006 that had brought her back to prominence after her party's huge setback in the Assembly polls earlier that year, according to PTI.
Riding on the Singur movement and the one at Nandigram in January 2007, Banerjee turned the table on the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which began losing political ground in the state starting the 2008 panchayat and the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, culminating in their defeat in the 2011 Assembly election in the state after 34 years.
After coming to power in 2011, Banerjee's first legislation was the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 for returning land to the unwilling farmers.
The announcement was made on a day, earmarked as Singur Divas, to celebrate the return of nearly the same amount of land that had been acquired by the earlier Left Front government from farmers in Singur ten years ago.
In fact, it was made from a spot very close to the abandoned small-car factory in Singur, from where Mamata Banerjee and her party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), had asked Tata Motors to leave West Bengal in 2008 and set up operations in other states.
The fact that the announcement was made on a day, earmarked as Singur Divas, to celebrate the exit of Tatas from Singur and more importantly from a spot close to the abandoned Nano factory in Singur, made it all the more ironic.
