Asrafun Bibi shows her Tata health centre card. (Pradip Sanyal)

Singur, Sept. 2: Asrafun Bibi curses Mamata Banerjee’s supporters every time her 70-year-old knees ache.

Every Thursday, two doctors and three assistants used to visit the primary school in her village, Joymollah, to conduct free check-ups and distribute free medicine.

Over 200 villagers, mostly the elderly and children, used to attend the weekly camp run by the Tatas until the Trinamul Congress panchayat samiti came to power a few months ago. The samiti first boycotted the four health camps being run by the company and then forced them shut.

“They were a blessing for poor villagers. They gave free medicines,” Asrafun said.

Earlier, Joymollah residents had to travel 10km to Singur to see a doctor.

Asrafun, whose three bighas (an acre) were acquired for the small-car project, suffers from a liver disorder and joint pain. “Every Thursday, they used to give an ointment and other medicines. I don’t have the money to buy them. Whenever I feel pain in my joints, I curse Mamata Banerjee and her party,” said the widow.

Her three married daughters took away the money she got from her plot and she is left with only Rs 8,516 and a bigha of fertile land. “Neither the CPM government nor Mamata Banerjee, who is making speeches every day, had ever thought of opening a health centre for us. We want Tata to stay for our good,” Asrafun said.

Many farmers in whose name Mamata has stalled work at the Nano plant are also ruing the possibility of the Tatas leaving. “I’m angry that my land was taken away, but we needed the health centre badly,” said Sheikh Abdul Saheed.

An asthma patient, he queued up at one of the camps every week.

Saheed’s son Abdul Halim has collected the compensation for his one bigha. “My father refused to take the money because Trinamul people asked him not to. But I know only farming is not enough to run a family,” said Halim, now a building materials supplier.

Saheed said he would acc-ept the compensation if the government offered a better deal. “It’s painful to part with land, but I have decided to take the cheque.”

Anjana Ruidas, 72, is still hopeful that the health camp in her Bajemelia village will reopen. “It was the best thing to have happened here in many years. I don’t want Tata to go back,” she said.

There is a government-run health centre in Bajemelia, but “it rarely has the medicines we need”, Anjana said.

Becharam Manna, the chief of the Trinamul panchayat samiti, declined comment on why the health camps were shut down.