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  Singur land deal: Farmers rejoice, take out procession

Singur land deal: Farmers rejoice, take out procession

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Sep 2, 2016, 1:04 am IST
Updated : Sep 2, 2016, 1:04 am IST

Celebrations started in Singur only minutes after the Supreme Court announced its verdict a little after 2 pm. People were glued to TV sets since morning, waiting to hear the much-awaited ruling.

Celebrations started in Singur only minutes after the Supreme Court announced its verdict a little after 2 pm. People were glued to TV sets since morning, waiting to hear the much-awaited ruling. As soon as they learnt that the apex court has ordered the return of the entire 997-acres land to the farmers, they burst into jubilation.

They took out a procession with a large framed photograph of Mamata Banerjee, distributed sweets and smeared green abir on each other. Women welcomed the verdict in traditional Bengali style by blowing conch shells.

“Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had forcibly snatched our land for Tata babu and when we had protested, we were beaten up by the police and were also arrested. We knew that the Supreme Court will give us relief us from this tyranny. This verdict reaffirms our faith in judiciary,” said Mr Badal Satra, a farmer who had lost over two bighas of land to Nano’s now-defunct plant.

The residents of Beraberia, Baje Melia, Ghaserberi and other villages in and around Singur also thronged streets to welco-me the verdict. It was these villagers who had floated Krishi Jami Raksha Samiti in 2006 after 1,000 acres of fertile, multi-crop land was acquired by the then Left Front government. Their small local agitation was turned into a massive anti-land peasants’ movement by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who is now being hailed as the saviour. The first major decision she had taken after becoming CM in May 2011 was the return of land to farmers.

Mr Manoranjan Malik, a sharecropper started crying after hearing the verdict.

“We had waited for 10 long years for this day. I wish my daughter Tapasi was alive to see this victory, but I am sure her atma will get shanti by this verdict,” he said. Tapasi Malik, 16, was a spirited tribal girl who actively participated in the peasants’ agitation. On a December morning in 2006, her charred body was found near the Nano plant. To terrorise the agitating villagers, some miscreants backed by the CPI(M) had allegedly dragged Tapasi into the guarded area of the plant, gangraped her and then set her ablaze.

The Tatas had relocated their Nano plant to Gujarat in October 2008. Today, the abandoned plant area, surrounded by trees and shrubberies, looks like a haunted house. “This defunct plant looks like a cemetery because our happiness, our aspirations and our hopes were buried here 10 years ago,” said another farmer Gopal Chandra Das.