PLANNING LEGISLATIONCOURT CASES – TATA MOTORS LAND ACQUISITION CASE

IIT ROORKEE MURP I VIKAS SAINI SARANG GUPTA

WB Government and Tata Motors• Left Front wins the State Assembly

election for the seventh time running in 2006.

• CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has a vision of Industrialize the state and create jobs for the youth.

• Ratan Tata promises the nation a ONE LAKH CAR.

• Tata Motors accept a lucrative offer by the WB government.

Farmers of Singur• According to govt. on Singur block, 83% of the land is highly fertile land.• Landholdings in Singur are small with very few owners having more than 2 bighas (0.66 acres).• More than 11,000 land holdings. • Of a total of 6,000 families that will be affected, about 3500 farming households work on their own fields and can be called poor or subsistence farmers. • Majority of non-farming households in Singur are employed in agriculture-related occupations.

Timeline of the case18 May : In a joint press conference with the then CM, in Kolkata Ratan Tata says that Tata Motors had decided to locate the Rs 1 Lakh small car project at Singur in Hooghly. The project will spread over 700 acres with another 300 acres kept aside for ancillary Production.25 May : when the Tata company representatives and the officials went to see the land. The people refuse to let them reach their fields.26 May: Angry farmers demanded assured jobs in it.

2006

1 June: About 3,000 villager stages a demonstration in front of the office of the Singur block development officer against the government’s move to acquire farmland for the Tata Motors project.19-24 July: Ignoring the people’s voice the Government issued 13 notices under Section 9 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 to the affected farmers.Aug 28, 2006:- Land acquisition challenged in Kolkata High Court.25 September: Singur Land forcefully acquired. The events showed that the Left Front Government would go to any extent to evict the people and hand over the land to the company officials, more than four hundred people including several women and children were brutally assaulted and about 78activists were arrested.

1 October: Ex-chief justices of the Supreme Court judges J. S. Verma and Rajendra Babu and retired judge M. N. Rao wrote letters to Ratan Tata to abandon Singur.5 November: Mamata Banerjee asks the Tatas to shift their proposed small car project from farmland in West Bengal’s Singur and gave a 12-day ultimatum to the state government to announce that industries would not be set up on agricultural land.Dec 4, 2006:- The WB Govt claimed that 920 acres of land had been voluntarily handed over with the owners of 650 acres accepting the compensation. 

7 January: Farmers of Singur complains that the government has stopped releasing water from tube-wells which fall inside the fenced-off area. As a result, agriculture in almost 743 acres of land in Bajemelia, Singherveri, Khaserveri, Beraberi and Gopalnagar, has been badly hit owing to the non-availability of irrigation water.

2007

Mar 9: Tata Motors got possession of land. 949.5 acres of land leased out to the company for 90 years.

2 May, 2007: The High Court says the affidavit submitted by the government on the Singur land acquisition process was “incomplete.”

Mar 27,2007:- The state government admitted that its advocate general made an “erroneous” submission to the Kolkata High Court on the compensation for farmers. The true facts state that only 30% of the land owners of Singur who own 287.5 acres of land had given consent in writing. It meant that around 65% who had even collected cheques were against the forced land acquisition. Jun 7, 2007:- The state govt. accepts before High Court that about 300 acres of land in Singur was yet undecided and terms not agreed by owners.

Aug 22, 2008:- Ratan Tata declares that Nano project might shift out of Singur if violence continues. Officers and engineers harassed for hours. Work in progress under police protection.

28 May: Mamata Banerjee said that she had no objection to the Tata Motors project at Singur if the government returned the 400 acres of land to those farmers who did not accept compensation.

2008

October 3: Tatas declared their decision to move the Nano Project out of West Bengal.