-PTI   The West Bengal government today submitted before the Calcutta high court that it was not against the Tatas but in favour of farmers and employment generation. Contesting the Tata Motors Ltd prayer that the Singur Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 be declared unconstitutional, senior counsel for the government Saktinath Mukherjee submitted before Justice Saumitra Pal that the government was answerable to the people as 1000 acres of fertile land was...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

-The Telegraph   The Mamata Banerjee government today started the process of returning land to farmers in Singur, snubbing the Tata attempt to open a dialogue to maintain status quo on the 997-acre plot. Rabindranath Bhattacharya, the school education minister and MLA from Singur, and Becharam Manna, the MLA from Haripal, oversaw distribution of over 3,000 application forms among farmers in Gopalnagar, Beraberi, Bajemelia, Joymollah, Khaserbheri and Singherbheri. These farmers had not accepted...

-PTI   The Calcutta high court on Monday refused to pass an interim order restraining the West Bengal government from distributing to farmers in Singur the land acquired earlier to set up Tata'a car manufacturing unit. On Tata Motor's plea that an interim injunction be passed to restrain distribution of the land from tomorrow, Justice Saumitra Pal said in that case the company's original petition challenging the Singur Land Rehablitation and Development...

-PTI   The Calcutta high court today refused to pass an interim order restraining the West Bengal government from distributing to farmers in Singur the land acquired earlier to set up Tata'a car manufacturing unit. On Tata Motors's plea that an interim injunction be passed to restrain distribution of the land from tomorrow, Justice Saumitra Pal said in that case the company's original petition challenging the Singur Land Rehablitation and Development Act,...