The Singur Song

Singur is a town comprising of villages around Singur in Hooghly District, West Bengal, India. It is located just about 35kms from Kolkata(Calcutta), one of the major metropolitan city and the capital of West Bengal. What is that so intriguing about this small agriculture town that had to do with a blog about Tata Motors?

The district suddenly got the attention not only of the local media but also international media in the year 2006. It was the year when Tata launched it's world impact car Tata Nano. And also later it made the announcement that it would be built in a factory which is to built in Singur, West Bengal.

Rally lead by the Opposition Party

It was not a cake walk as things started to fell into places for Tata in Singur. The choice of Singur was made by the company among six sites offered by the state government. The project faced massive opposition from displaced farmers. The unwilling farmers were given political support by West Bengal's opposition leader. Preliminary surveys by officials of the state and Tata Motors faced protests and manhandling on one occasion, from the villagers organized under the Save Singur Farmland Committee with the opposition party forming its chief component. The project had, however, generated controversy right from the start, particularly on the question of state acquisition of fertile agricultural land for private enterprise. The ruling party went all out for acquiring 997 acres (4.03 sq.km) of fertile agriculture land required for the car factory, which raised many eyebrows about the party forcibly acquiring the land under the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The law has provisions for state taking over privately held land for public purposes but not for developing private businesses.

The main reason for West Bengal being the front runner for the factory was the rapid rise in the population of West Bengal has not been accompanied by significant economic growth . The ruling party gained power by promising agricultural land to landless farmers, but given West Bengal's population density, the land-holdings are small and the yields are insufficient to sustain poor families. While the shift from agriculture to industrial jobs requires re-training, given India's economic growth, it provides an opportunity for earning higher income.

The land reserved for the project was taken control of by the state administration amidst protests and fencing off commenced on December 1, 2006. The opposition leader was prevented from entering into the area by the state police which led to the statewide strike(bandh) by the opposition. The fenced off area was regularly guarded by policemen and also cadres of the ruling party. Intermittent attacks by villagers have since continued on the fence. However, continuing agitations against the project appeared to have proved ineffective and a farmer who lost land committed suicide. Tata officially started the construction of the plant in January 21, 2007. But Tata Motors have made substantial promises for the people of Singur. According to their claims, Singur would become a mini-auto city and approximately 70 vendors would set up shop along with the factory. The total investment planned was approximately Rs 1,000 crore(US$20million).

Finally after more than a year and half into the construction of the plant, Tata Group announced in October, 2008 that it officially pulls out of Singur due to political unrest and agitation but the land still being with the Tata Group.  Then Tata went on to set up the Nano factory in Sanand, Gujarat which was completed in just 14months.

In the 2011 state elections the opposition party became the ruling party now and the battle was taken to the next level. It passed a bill that allows the government to revoke the 99 year old lease given to Tata for 997 acres of land which led Tata to take the government to court.

Sources:

www.ndtv.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano_Singur_controversy