Tapan Ghosh of Ghoshpara in Gopalnagar, who is having second thoughts about the agitation now. Picture by Ananda Das

Singur, Sept. 15: Fed up with the impasse, which has neither got them their land nor any money, many unwilling farmers are welcoming the government’s new rehabilitation package, but they also want a guarantee that the promises would be fulfilled.

“I want a solution. I am willing to accept the revised package but I am not sure if the government will keep its commitment,” said Tapan Ghosh of Ghoshpara.

Tapan, 37, who had lost over 1.5 acres to the project, added: “It has now become a political issue and we are caught between two parties. No one cares about us.”

The villagers who had accepted their compensation are better off, he now feels. “They get interest on the money. We neither have our land nor money to draw. We are losers in every way.”

Many Ghoshpara residents had refused to accept the compensation after their three-crop land was acquired for the Tata Motors project.

Those who did take the cheques faced social boycott. The split remains but, for the unwilling, the other side looks greener.

“How will we survive if it continues like this? We want the agitation to end,” said Parvati Ghosh, wife of an unwilling farmer.

Seeing two youths on a motorcycle with a Trinamul Congress flag, she rushed to her house holding her son in arms. The duo instructed her not to speak to reporters and asked her to join Mamata Banerjee’s rally tomorrow.

“Aamra jomi phirat chai. Aar kichhu na (We want our land back, nothing else),” sa-id one of them.

“The reporters will go, you’ll be here,” the young man told Tapan and sped away.

Many like Kalyani Ghosh wondered whether the “tall promises” would be kept.

“We do not trust the government, its words and deeds do not match. First, they should give us a guarantee, only then will we think of accepting cheques,” she said.

Many villagers, Kalyani said, were angry at the government because some people were selling their land “at four to five times the price the government had offered us”.

Swarupa Ghosh, who had collected the compensation cheque for her 1 acre, said: “Parvati (Ghosh) was such a good neighbour, she used to come to me twice everyday. Now she doesn’t even look at me. All for the land. Let’s hope things get better.”

Standing at her door, Swarupa, however, hopes that she can celebrate Durga Puja with Parvati.