By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Part 2 of the three part series on Singur.
Part 1: Six years later
Singur/Kolkata: Among the land-owners in Singur, West Bengal still waiting to be compensated for their acquired lands is Jame Masjid Committee of Beraberi Gram Panchayat of Joymolla. Income from the land used to pay for masjid expenses including salary for the Imam. Masjid Committee did not come under the relief provided by Mamta Banerjee of Rs. 2000 per month and free rice for famers who were not compensated.
Joymolla Jame Masjid in Joymolla village of Singur. Secretary of the Masjid Committee Shaikh Muhammad Ali standing in front of the Mosque.
The West Bengal Government has acquired 997.11 acres land in Singur Block of Hooghly District in May 2006 under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 ask for setting up a Tata small car project.
The Tata Project in Singur.
Singur Block is the basically farmland and located beside the Durgapur expressway near the Ratanpur crossing with NH-1, at a distance of 40 km from Kolkata. The six mouzas acquired for the Tata project, Gopalnagar, Beraberi, Bajemelia, Khaserbheri, Singherberi and Joymolla. Muslim are in Chakkalikaburi Village of Beraberi and Joymolla Villages.
Security personal on duty inside the Tata Factory area in Singur.
TwoCircles.net met the secretary of the Joymolla Jame Masjid Committee Shaikh Muhammad Ali. Mr Ali informed that 1.5 acre of land of the Masjid committee was acquired under the Tata Project. They met several times to local Block Development Office to get the compensation, they denied. He admitted that they contacted the BDO a bit late. The Committee should get at least Rs. 7 lakhs as compensation for the land.
A Muslim Farmer working in a Potato Field in Joymolla village of Singur, near Tata project.
Disruption in the income has affected maintenance of the Masjid. Imam of the masjid is also not getting any allowance for imams that were announced by Mamta Bannerjee.
Joymolla Primary School in Singur.
Local youth Samad Mallik and Firoj Mallick is upset over the future of Tata project in Singur. They said, a lot of Muslim youth were trained by Tata group to get jobs in their factory. Many muslim girls were also trained for cook and tailoring works by Tata group. Now they are hopeless as there are no job prospect in this area.
The railway station of Singur.
The youth are of the opinion that the Government should with mutual understanding with the Tata group immediately start the factory where more than 1000 people will get job. Mamata should rethink the matter, was the message to the chief Minister of West Bengal by the villagers.