By IANS
Kolkata : The West Bengal government has worked out an unbeatable compensation package for the farmers of Singur in lieu of the land acquired for the Tata Motors project, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) patriarch Jyoti Basu said Friday.
"The package worked out by Nirupam Sen (state industry minister) is something never seen before anywhere in India," Basu said. But the Trinamool Congress refused to accept anything short of returning the plots.
"The package would be unveiled after June 18 because of a court hearing on Singur," Basu said after the CPI-M's state committee meeting here.
Commenting on the Trinamool rejecting anything short of returning the land to the farmers who did not accept cheques, Basu said: "Has Mamata Banerjee seen the package? How can she comment without seeing it?
"She (Mamata) has suggested availability of 600 acres of land across the road in Singur (for relocation of the project) but we found out that the land does not belong to the government. It belongs to individuals."
Reacting to Basu's comments, Trinamool leader Saugato Roy said: "We would not accept this. We demand return of original land inside the boundary wall of the Tata project to the unwilling farmers who were agitating for so many months holding on their beliefs. We stick to our stand."
Citing legal handicaps, the West Bengal government Thursday said the opposition's demand for return of land acquired from unwilling farmers could not be met.
Mamata Banerjee in response vowed to intensify the fight for recovering the acquired land.
Basu, who held talks with Banerjee recently and pledged to look into the possibility of reorganising land given to Tata Motors, later said that land could not be returned but a handsome compensation package could be worked out.
The Basu-Mamata talks rekindled hopes of a political consensus on Singur and Nandigram, where trouble broke out afresh Friday with CPI-M workers and anti-acquisition villagers clashing over a planned special economic zone (SEZ).
A total of 997 acres of land in Singur, about 40 km from Kolkata in Hooghly district, have been chosen by Tata Motors for its small car project. The issue has triggered a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by civil society groups and parties like the Trinamool.
While some farmers committed suicide in Singur, at least 21 people have been killed, hundreds injured and several women raped in the continuing violence in Nandigram, about 150 km from here in East Midnapore district, since January.