Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday promised that agriculture and industry both would strive in Hooghly’s Singur.
“We have built an agro-industrial park in over eight acres of land in Singur. We have commissioned a private industrial park where Amazon and Flipkart will set up warehouses and generate employment for the people of Singur,” she said, addressing a crowd of supporters.
This was Mamata’s first visit in nearly four years to the rural town around 38 km north of Kolkata that was tipped to be the face of Bengal’s industrial rejuvenation nearly 20 years ago.
The land acquisition for the Nano car project and the movement opposing it drove away the Tata Motors group and paved the way for the Trinamool to defeat the Left Front government in 2011.
Mamata said her push for industry in Singur was not at the cost of agriculture.
“Both agriculture and industry will thrive in Singur. I do not believe in jumlas [rhetoric], we deliver on our promises,” she said.
On the night of May 20, 2011, in her first cabinet meeting at the Writers’ Buildings, Mamata had announced the state government was taking back the 997 acre land acquired by its predecessor, the Left Front government, for the motor plant and that the land would be handed back to the disgruntled farmers.
The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, was passed in the Bengal Assembly to return land to the “unwilling” owners as promised by Mamata in the run-up to the 2011 Assembly polls.
Mamata on Wednesday said the people of Singur were among the beneficiaries of the various welfare schemes being run by the state government and will continue to receive financial assistance.
She also announced several development projects in the vicinity of the area where the factory was to come up.
“Singur is my favourite place. I had spent many days here between 2006 and 2008. I was on hunger strike for 26 days against the land acquisition here,” she said in her speech.
Addressing BJP supporters 10 days ago in Singur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to bring an end to the Trinamool’s “jungle raj.”
Mamata reminded Singur residents that the BJP had sent Rs 10,000 to the account of crores of women in Bihar before the Assembly elections there.
“After the election results, bulldozers were sent to their homes,” she said.