WHY MEDHA PATKAR UNABLE TO GET LAND ACQUISTION ACT, 1894 AMENDED IN FAVOUR OF UNWILLING LANDOWNERS WITH THE HELP OF HER FRIEND MAMATA BANERJEE?

On 3rd October, 2008 just on the eve of Durga Puja in 2008 the Tatas were forced to leave unwillingly Singur even after completion of 95% of their Nano Car Factory spending about 1500 crores as a result of the conspiratorial violent agitation of Mamata Banerjee launched in connivance with Maoists, Congress, SUCI, BJP, communal fundamentalists, perverted & spineless intellectuals and foreign funded human rights activists with the financial assistance and guidance from the industrial competitors, finance capital and imperialists. The damage caused to the future of West Bengal is undoubtedly not only irreparable but also unprecedented.

In fact, the one and only aim of this dirty political exercise was to destabilize the Left Front Government throwing to the winds the interests of the state and install Mamata Banerjee as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal.

It is none else but she who forcibly did not also allow coming up of much-awaited Chemical Hub at Nandigram, expansion of National Highways, construction of Hospitals, I.T. Parks, Bridges, Aerodromes, Industries, Thermal Power Plants and other developmental works in West Bengal.

However, the Left Government did not give up hope and after much endeavour it was able to rope in BHEL to set up a 1600 MW Power Plant at the abandoned 997 acres of Nano factory at Singur. BHEL is one of the Nav Ratnas owned by Central Government, which has orders worth 30,000 crores in its hand now. There is a flicker of hope for Tata Motors’ abandoned Singur site. A team from central government-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) visited the place along with state government officials for the project with the West Bengal Power Development Corporation. BHEL General Manager S.C. Mittal was accompanied by WBPDC managing director Debashis Sen. The team also met Tata Motors representatives at the site. The setting up of the Power Plant is under process between BHEL and the Left Front Government.

But Mamata Banerjee is adamant not to allow establishment of any industry at Singur or in West Bengal. So, she, being the personification of destruction, distortion of facts, arrogance, duplicity, dictatorship, violence, provocations, hypocrisy, whims and blatant lies, has again plunged into the arena with the old demand of return of 400 acres of land to the landowners unwilling to part with their land or hand over the entire land to her for the establishment of a Railway Coach Factory.

There is a new coach factory coming up at Rae Bareli. She has announced an EMU and MEMU factory in Halishahar in Bengal in her Budget. Her predecessor has announced another factory at Palghat in Kerala, where the state government will provide 1,000 acres of land free of cost to the Railways. The capacity of Integrated Coach Factory and the Railway Coach Factory is also being increased. So, how can another coach factory be viable?"

If it is a locomotive factory she wants, there are doubts about that, too. There are already two locomotive factories under construction in Bihar - Chhapra and Madhepura. What will she do with a new one in Bengal? The person who drove the Tata factory out of Singur now wants to build another factory.

There is no denying the fact that Mamata Banerjee herself knows well both the demands are unreasonable as well as impossible to meet on the following grounds.

(1) It is not 400 but around 181 acres only.

(2) The 181 acres of land is not a compact single piece of land. It is a fragmented one consisting of thousands pieces of broken plots and remains scattered all over the site. If these fragmented plots are to be returned, neither BHEL nor the Railways will be able to set up any industry with about 1500 private owners residing with their families in the midst of the coming up factory.

(3) Last, but not the least. Once acquired, no land can be returned until and unless the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is amended suitably for the purpose. In case of non-utilization, the land has to be put into auction by the state government and the highest bidder will get the same in terms of present provisions of the relevant act.

The fact of the matter is that Mamata Banerjee is not at all interested in setting up any industry there. Her only disastrous objective is to dramatize the issue in order to destroy industrialization of West Bengal and thereby augment her own vested political interests with the help and guidance of the Maoists, Congress, BJP, SUCI, sold-out intellectuals and foreign funded human rights activists.

During the period of both Narshimha Rao and Atal Bihari Bajpai, she as the Railway Minister and the Coal Minister had inaugurated whimsically a number of projects without budgetary support or approval of the concerned ministries. None of them have yet been implemented and the lands acquired for these inaugurated projects have still been lying vacant. The drama does not stop here. She has been flagging off old trains in new names and also laying afresh foundation stones of old projects, which were inaugurated long back with foundation stone still lying therein.

She has been acquiring forcibly thousands of acres of most fertile lands in UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states for the implementation of the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors and Industrial Corridor ignoring the vehement objection and stiff resistance of the land losers. Is it not double standard or duplicity?

She holds an important portfolio in the Central Government and also is one of the most powerful ministers. If she is really interested for the welfare of the farmers, instead of creating problems for others, she can exert her office to get the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 amended easily in favour of the unwilling landowners.

It is unfortunate we live in such a country where people are swayed away by wave, hypocrisy, duplicity and blatant false propaganda of the political leaders and ‘so-called’ political leaders and social workers without considering the fact, ground reality and merit of the case.