Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Modi, the chief minister.
Of the 13,500 people (mostly landowners but including a few hundred others such as
share-cropper tenants) on the 997-acre site, 11,000 had by this time accepted and received
compensation while the other 2,500 (with 297 acres) had either refused the money because
they were unwilling to hand over their land, or had their payments held up in ownership
disputes. Some people had already been employed on or around the project - about 180
were working for Tata and its component suppliers, while about 650 were in supporting
transfer was fixed, none of the 13,500 had any rights to the land under the 1894 legislation
so, when Tata departed, they lost both their old agricultural livelihoods and the one-job-
per-family that Tata was offering. They also lost the prospect of other future employment -
there would have been 1,500 jobs in the Tata factory, plus thousands more in consequential
manufacturing and service activities. (The automotive industry estimates that total employ-
ment can amount to more than five times the basic figure).
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Banerjee promised during her election campaign that, when she became chief minister,
she would provide nearly 400 acres of land to the 2,500 people who had not received com-
pensation (though only 297 acres were available, of which 220 belonged to the unwilling
category). One of herfirst moves when she was elected was therefore to pass the Singur
Land Rehabilitation and Development Act cancelling Tata's ownership rights. The govern-
ment then took possession of the land at night without giving adequate notice to Tata, and
without offering the company compensation. Tata spotted flaws in the Act and started a
case against the government, which included a compensation claim for its lost investment
- estimated at Rs 500 crore out of a total expenditure of Rs 1,500 crore. In mid-2013 the
was no longer suitable for agriculture.
When I visited the site a few weeks after Tata had left, those without jobs were destitute.
Biswanath, a 42-year-old, had given up his half-acre land and said he had been beaten up
by Trinamool activists for doing so. Expecting a Tata job, he'd distributed the Rs 300,000
he had received in compensation among seven brothers and two sisters, and had spent his
own share. 'Now I am consuming alcohol,' he said.
The main lesson to be drawn from both the Singur debacle and the Nandigram crisis is
the need for a company to be closely involved in community affairs in order to build local
trust and support among those being displaced. This has to happen even if the state govern-
ment is purchasing the land because it is the company that can give assurances about the
future, including the possibility of jobs. Tata stayed largely aloof and, though it had medic-
al teams working in the area, did not try to secure community endorsement for the project
