PRAGOTI

Kolkata, January 9 Even as Tata Motors is ready to unveil its much-hyped small car at the auto-expo in Delhi on Thursday, the state government has quietly started rehabilitating the residents of Singur, including those who lost their land to the company’s small car manufacturing unit there.

On January 7, the government distributed about 14 acres of land (out of a total of 53 acres earmarked for the purpose) among 100 people, a majority of whom were unrecorded bargadars who lost their livelihood as the land they tilled came under the project.

“The remaining 39 acres of vested land at Singur has been earmarked for distribution among the poor and the unrecorded bargadars,” Land Reforms Commissioner P K Agarwal told The Indian Express.

The Tata Motors project is coming up over a 645-acre area, which was acquired by the state government.

The government has also acquired another 290 acres next to the main project where a vendor park will come up.

Production in the Rs 1,500-crore project will start late this year.

After Singur, the government had also earmarked 400 acres of vested land at Nandigram block 1, epicentre of the recent violence.

“We are looking for an opportune time for distribution of land in that area,” said an official of the land reforms department.

Meanwhile, Agarwal added that Minister for Land and Land Reforms Abdur Rezzaq Mollah will visit Bagnan in Howrah district on January 22 to distribute land among the poor under the state government’s scheme of Chas-o-basobasher-jonya-jomi (land for house and cultivation).

“The minister will distribute 2.1 acres of land among 41 people,” said the commissioner.

Courtesy: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/14-acres-distributed-in-Singur/2...