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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Land taken, battle legal

Land taken, battle legal

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published Published on Jun 21, 2011   modified Modified on Jun 21, 2011

-The Telegraph

 

The Singur land was taken over by the state government tonight after a flurry of dramatic events, prompting the Tatas to make preparations to move the high court tomorrow morning.

Sources said Tata Motors wrote to top state government officials tonight, requesting them not to alter the status quo without a court order. However, a government official said in Singur that the administration had taken possession of the land at 10.10pm.

At 1.05am on Wednesday, Chandernagore sub-divisional officer Abhijit Mitra put a lock on the Singur factory’s latticed gate. Around 450 guards hired by the Tatas have been allowed to stay the night on condition that they will move out at 7am tomorrow.

Moving with lightning speed on a day chief minister Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi, the state government notified the Singur bill that was signed into an act by the governor yesterday and fulfilled the last-mile requirement to make it a law.

The formalities wrapped up and armed with a notice, the district administration raced to the site meant for the Nano plant but were beaten to the draw by a few minutes by the Tatas around 6.25pm.

A Tata notice, seeking a five-hour notice “during daylight hours” and declaring that response to any communication delivered to the guards would be forthcoming on the next working day, was pasted on the fence of the site.

The unfazed government slapped on the gate its own notice, which cited the mint-fresh Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, and asked Tata Motors to restore vacant possession of the land “forthwith in favour of the District Magistrate, Hooghly”.

The government notice added: “Please note that in case of failure to deliver vacant possession as aforesaid, necessary action will be taken in accordance with provisions of the said Act.”

The land leased to Tata Motors was formally taken over at 10.10pm. “The district magistrate had instructed me to take possession of the land and I did so at 10.10pm tonight,” sub-divisional officer Mitra said.

“An order to this effect has been issued by me and many villagers have signed the order sheet to show that they were witnesses to the takeover of the land by the state government,” Mitra added.

Late tonight, the district administration put up 45 more notices informing the ancillary units that the land earmarked for them was also being taken over. Officials said that henceforth the Tatas would not be allowed to paste any more notices on the factory premises.

Dilip Sengupta, the consultant adviser who issued the notice on behalf of Tata Motors, was on the premises till 11.30pm.

The lock put by the government has four keys — two of which will be with the police OC and one with the BDO. The remaining one has been given for the time being to the security agency hired by the Tatas so that the guards can leave in the morning.

Samaraditya Pal, barrister at Calcutta High Court, confirmed that his client, Tata Motors, would move court tomorrow. “We are moving court against the entire bill,” Pal told The Telegraph.

Legal circles said Pal went to meet high court Chief Justice J.N. Patel at 8.50pm and informed him that an unlisted motion would be moved tomorrow at 10.30am in the room of Justice Saumitra Pal, praying that the land should not be taken away.

Tata Motors then wrote to the WBIDC and government officials, including the chief secretary, that the high court would be moved on Wednesday morning.

A source said the letter informed the officials that “the apprehension of Tata Motors that there is likelihood that they may be forcibly dispossessed was brought to the notice of the chief justice”.

In view of the plan to move court, the letter requested the officials “not to interfere with or disturb our possession of the factory site in any manner whatsoever under the act or otherwise without order of the high court”, the source added.

The WBIDC had leased 645 acres to the automobile company. The vendors possess 290 acres but they, unlike the Tatas, could not enter into a formal lease agreement with the government. According to the bill, land will be returned to those who did not accept the compensation, while Tata Motors can seek compensation.

Udayan Ghosh, the president of a local forum of owners who took the compensation, said many “willing” farmers would move court by Friday. “We will challenge the bill in individual capacity,” he said.

Although dated June 18, the Tata notice was pasted by two guards only a few minutes before the government put up its version. When the guards stepped out of the factory premises and turned to the fence, government officials were busy preparing to paste the district magistrate’s notice on the gate.

Before the government notice was pasted, nine “unwilling” farmers were made to sign the notice as witnesses.

An hour before the events unfolded at Singur, industries minister Partha Chatterjee had informed Mamata, who is camping in Delhi, of the gazette notification of the Singur Act. “The gazette notification was done today. The process to return the land will start now,” Chatterjee had said at Writers’ Buildings.

The Telegraph, 22 June, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110622/jsp/frontpage/story_14145101.jsp


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