‘I won’t give up my land’

 

Squatting in the lush green paddy fields of Gopalnagar village at Singur in West Bengal's Hooghly district, 48-year-old Loknath Shi could well have been humming the bluegrass ode to the Navajo Indian in distant America. But the emaciated man does not have a banjo to strum out his protest. Lungi-clad and sporting a week-old stubble, he looks with trepidation at any visitor who appears city-bred. "Are you a Tata guy? Please go back if you are! I won't give up my land," he declares.

 

Loknath is clueless about Tata Motors' Rs 1 lakh ‘people’s car’ project that will eat up the three acres of ancestral land that he has been tilling since he was 14. All he knows is that some ‘boro karkhana’ (large industry) will come up, for which he has to give up his farmland, his sole source of income.

 

Once convinced that you are just a reporter there to hear his story, Loknath breaks down. “Just see what a conspiracy the government has hatched to cripple me and my family," he laments.

 

 

Loknath is the head of a family of 14. With his farm income, he has managed to turn his mud hut into a four-roomed pucca house, where he lives with his wife, two children, mother, two brothers and their families. The family’s survival is now threatened, with Tata Motors wanting to acquire their land as part of the more than 1000 acres it needs for its small car project.

 

“My elder son is a Class XII student, and the younger one is in Class IX. If I sell the land, I will have to move out of my home. Where will my sons study? It’s not just about money," Loknath says, sobbing miserably.

 

Benefits of industrialisation and personal finance are not the rustic farmer’s forte. No one has told him how much compensation the government will give him for his land. Nor does he understand the concept of depositing the money in a bank and earning interest from it to secure a future. He only knows how much he can earn from the three crops that he grows on his land. “Every year, I earn Rs 72,000 from potatoes, Rs 16,000 from jute and Rs 21,000 from paddy. Even after the expenses for seeds, fertilisers and other inputs, I can comfortably support my family. How will I do that for the rest of my life without my land?" Loknath asks.

 

The farmer is prepared to accept fate, but not without putting up a fight. “In the end, I may have to sell my house and take the money. It will spoil my children’s future and make the family starve when the money is over. But I will oppose the land acquisition tooth and nail. God is with me," he affirms.

 

 

Loknath’s neighbour Bifal Chandra Bangal, meanwhile, is ready to laugh all the way to the bank. Sitting in his grocery store, his second source of income after the two acres of inherited farm land, where he grows two crops, Bifal says he has decided to hand over his land.

 

“The compensation will be great for me. The net income from farming is not too much these days, after meeting the rising cost of inputs. I depend on this grocery store more than the land," he explains.

 

Bifal thinks the project spells hope for his three educated sons, who are not interested in farming. “My sons are now scouring the region for jobs. If the factory comes up here, they may get jobs and not have to leave home for distant lands," he muses.

 

 

 

Whether Tata Motors’ small car project runs into trouble or not depends on the muscle of the newly-formed Singur Krishi Jami Raksha Committee (Committee to Save Singur Farmland). Its members are readying for a fight. In the tea stalls of Singur, there is whispered talk of violence and even bloodshed. No one is sure whether these are portents of a serious law and order problem. But for government officials, memories of tribals being killed in police firing over land acquisition for steel projects at Kalinganagar in neighbouring Orissa are still fresh.

 

The Save Singur Farmland has the political backing of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress. Bancharam Manna, its convenor, has laid out a strategy to foil land acquisition move. He is busy holding meetings in the three panchayat areas of Gopalnagar, KGD and Beraberi, which fall in the 1007 acres of land identified for the project.

 

“We will call upon people who will lose land to come out along with every family member with whatever can serve as a weapon—broomsticks, wood and iron rods, ladles and woks — to counter police and the administration,” Manna declares. Locals also plan to block five entry points of the panchayats on the day administration officials come to serve the acquisition notice and prevent Tata Motors officials from surveying the project site. Direct confrontation will be the final step. “I know the battle is unequal. But every villager is with us. They are ready to die,” Manna states.

 

The district administration is not taking these as empty threats. A secret report prepared by district magistrate Vinod Kumar talks of the possibility of violence and bloodshed when the administration moves in to physically take control of the land. “Violence will jeopardise plans to acquire land for other projects in future. The Singur situation is right on the edge,” a government official says.

 

 

 

Yes, I don't think there will be a problem.

 

 

Mostly, the state government will give alternative employment to these farmers or their family members. The Tata Group has also come forward to share the responsibility.

 

 

The government is trying to formulate a scheme under which family members of displaced farmers will be given technical training. This is being done in association with the Tata Group. The Tata Group is also setting up its own training center. Farmers whose only source of earning had been agriculture will find it difficult to diversify into other professions. The government plans to allocate a separate place near the Tata Motors site, for these families to get associated with the project 

 

—Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri

 

 

Tata Motors maintains it has lived up to its high corporate responsibility image at Singur. The official spokesperson of Tata Motors said, "We take the appropriate initiative wherever we put up projects. Singur will be no different."

 

The company has ruled out any possibility of the project being shifted elsewhere if land acquisition is delayed over protracted battles with land-owners.