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BACKGROUND Note
Explaining ground realities in Singur;
State violence on protesting Local Peasants
The Chief Minister of WB announced Singur land acquisition on 16 th May 2006, followed by
a 26th May official visit of some sate officials to Singur, Hooghly district (nearly 60 km from
Kolkata) for ‘Tata Motors’, for their car-manufacturing unit.
Barren land for such a unit is available in plenty in various parts of the state. It is known that
the Chief Minister offered the Tatas unarable land in West Medinipur for setting up the
manufacturing unit, but the Tatas preferred this fertile multi-cropped highlands at Singur. It is
on the insistence of the TATAs that the government is going ahead with acquiring this land
also as majority of the land area could be used for non industrial, commercial purposes.
It should be noted here that Singur is just part of the expanded design to acquire 43,755
acre of land, majority of which agricultural, for 14 different projects in the coming years.
This is just another case happening in India, where the state machinery, with allies
supporting coercive designs for appropriating peoples property/ common property resources
contrive situations of volunteerism, even when people lay their lives for the protection of
their livelihoods. Here the only difference is that the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with
an anti-globalisation and anti-privatisation ideology, is heading the Government
Prepared based on inputs from Fact Finding Reports from various networks and recent articles in the Seminar and other
Journals on the Singur case
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the Birlas using the allotted land for industrial purposes for non-industrial private use, in
Uttarpara, WB.
The problem is not just about rehabilitation and amount of compensation, but about the
status of the land under question as source of livelihoods for thousands of families. One
time cash compensation benefiting some of these families could be made out through the
money power of the state to serve the interest of the TATAs, leading to situation that money
could let down genuine collective needs of the society, with force. The question is why is it
that a frontline political party, which leads a coalition opposing anti-people privatisation, is
using its government to benefit corporates.
The affected
15,000 families count on Singur farm lands for their livelihood. They are under the threat of
imminent eviction and loss of livelihood with this move of the government. Who are they?
It is quite unclear under what legal processes that the state is revising the cash
compensation, even amounting to doubts that such promises could only be considered as
luring tactics than official pronouncements.
Even in case of the tenants there is obligation form the state to ensure awarding land for
subsistence under the WB land reform Act
Also it is important to question the dualism in the CPM policy at the states where they rule
vis-à-vis the position they air in the national context. Even allies of CPM, other communists
groups in various parts of the country and independent individuals have politically
questioned the WB model.
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It is notable to see that the industrial Minister of WB admitting that there is no rehabilitation
policy in place in the state to address the question of development induced displacement,
which is a greater concern, considering other communities under thereat of forced eviction.
In the broader Indian context, displaced families for various projects since 1950s are yet to
get the official resettlement benefits.
With 36,000 closed and sick industries, the industrial policy preference of the state should
be on supporting the local labour serving initiatives, considering that an unemployed
population of 66 lakhs is registered in the state.
Demands
• Stop atrocities -state and non state- against the protesting farmers in Singur
• Immediate resumption of farming activities in Singur
• Provide immediate relief and compensation to affected people
• Judicial Inquiry into the widespread violence on the people in Singur
• Stop the anti constitutional handover of land to TATAs, which violates the right to
livelihoods of people- right which is essential to protect the right to life
• Respond to RTI applications regarding the Singur land acquisition immediately
• The WB government should immediately release a fact sheet on the processes till
date, regarding the appropriation of land
General Demand
• Repeal the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 which is being grossly misused by states to
appropriate common property resources as well as private lands for the paving way
for corporate profit maximisation
• Political parties involved in the struggle, in any capacity should place a public
statement on their position on how they understand the present scenario of
development and displacement in India since 1947
• They should also declare publicly how they value right to peoples livelihoods in the
context of displacements of all sorts
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