Mamata delivered what she promised, the Singur Land Bill

The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed by voice vote the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill to enable the Mamata Banerjee led government to acquire the entire 997.11 acres of land earlier handed over to the Tatas for their Nano car project. Now the Bill would be sent to the President for her assent.

As indicated earlier, the Left Front expressed their support to the Bill's spirit of returning lands to the dispossessed farmers but staged a walk- out from the Assembly citing several 'procedural anomalies'. As if to beat the Trinamul Congress with its own stick, Suryakanta Mishra, Leader of the Opposition, demanded that lands would have to be returned to not only those farmers having 400 acres of land and who had refused to accept compensation but to those agriculturists too whose lands fall within the boundaries of Tata's main factory area. In a word, he demanded return of the entire 997.11 acres of land to their previous owners.

The Left Front had two reasons for staging the walk- out and the new demand of the return of land. The walk- out, earlier not included in their plan of actions, had to be effected to prevent a division within the Left Front inside the Assembly. The RSP and the Forward Bloc, now almost on the verge of an open hostility with the CPM, might have voted for the Bill brushing aside all '' procedural objections'' from the CPM. Secondly, in order to counter the CPM propaganda of her being anti- industry, Mamata is now eager to set up alternative industrial units on 600 acres of land which will remain in the hands of the state government after distributing 400 acres to farmers who had refused to part with their lands.

Strangely enough, the Left Front today opposed the Bill's provision of giving compensation to Tatas and other ancillary units and instead maintained that it's the state government which should receive compensations.

The acquisition of Singur land by the state government is going to have tremendous impact on the political economy of West Bengal. Although Mamata Banerjee has decided not to disturb some other industrial ventures, started during the previous regime, industrialists are having a changed outlook.

Already there are hints that Prasun Mukherjee, a nonresident entrepreneur, might proceed with a changed plan of action at Nayachar, an island near the Bay of Bengal, and is expected to set up eco-friendly industries there.