People's Democracy

Singur Farmers Come Out In Support Of Industrialisation

FARMERS from the Gopalnagar, Khaserbheri, Singherbheri, and Bajeymelia mouzas of Singur lined up patiently at the block office at Singur from the morning of September 26, 2006 as they had done the previous day. Then, the armed lumpens swearing allegiance to the Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had run riot forcing the police to disperse them and escort an angry and stuttering Banerjee to the luxury car she had travelled in to the locale.

A 14-hour delay occurred to the much-awaited occasion when compensation in the shape of banker’s cheques would be distributed among the farmers who has handed over land to the state Left Front government in the interest of the spread of industrialisation in the area and, by percolating effect, in the district of Hooghly.

The cheques started to be handed over to the beneficiaries who would inevitably deposit them in the bank branches that had been set up in the vicinity. The banks offered ‘zero deposit’ opening of accounts. 

Haren Baag, a kisan from Khaserbheri had had an unpleasant experience the previous afternoon when a few armed Trinamul Congress ruffians pounced on him as he was about to enter the block office to collect his cheque of a couple of lakh of rupees. 

Baag who is in his sixties crumpled and saw his wristwatch, purse, and even his bicycle made off with by the Trinamul braves. Relief was clearly writ on his face as he deposited the cheque on September 26 at a nearby branch of a state sector bank. Such incidents, in fact, abounded.

Until date more than two thousand kisans have handed over land, have received compensation, and are looking forward to the four point programme that the industries department of the state LF government announced recently for the Singur affected over and above the compensation-solatium being offered and accepted:

• Joint projects to enhance income

• Separate process for women

• Training programme in place

• Packages for bargadars and khet mazdoors in the offing

Industries minister Nirupam Sen said in Delhi that the Left Front government had adopted such rehabilitation plans for the industrial projects where land had been taken over. 

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said in Delhi following the three-day meeting of the central committee that the bulk of the kisans of Singur had agreed to hand over land to the LF government and that the opposition had taken to the field to try and frustrate the initiative taken by the state LF government.

State secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) Biman Basu said that the state LF government had put in place schemes to provide employment to the youth. The Trinamul Congress and the Pradesh Congress stood against this move, having waged a kind of war against the state government on this issue in particular.

Biman Basu called upon the people of Bengal to stand by the Left Front and the Left Front government in order to isolate these elements of disruption politically and comprehensively. A large number of protest marches were taken out throughout Bengal against the Trinamul Congress depredations at Singur.

Following the call given by the Trinamul Congress, which was promptly supported by the Pradesh Congress, a sporadic road blockade was organised, briefly but enough to put the already overloaded Kolkata streets during the festival season to the additionality of traffic burden.

It was the utter failure of her bursts of violent efforts to stop the Singur kisans from handing over land and receiving compensation that perhaps proved the last straw for the Trinamul Congress leader. Attending a small sit-in demonstration in later in Kolkata, she suddenly burst out into angry tears with a wailing cry about willingness to quit politics: her lackeys duly and carefully recorded the sobs on video and audio recorders. 

The show turned a tad macabre later with an elderly Congress leader consoling her very loudly with the words that he, as well as the High Command, remained by her side. An elated Mamata promptly called for a general strike on the ‘plight of the Singur kisans’ on October 9. Only the state BJP was highly displeased at the developments. The strike call would be the massive failure all her recent disruptive programmes had turned out to be, we have no doubt.