Residents of Singur protest against the land acquisition with brooms in hand. (File picture)

Calcutta, June 28: Multi-crop land and human settlements will not be disturbed, to the extent possible, while land is acquired for the Tata Motors project at Singur in Hooghly, Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen said today.

It was more a reassurance than an announcement ? because this has been the government’s stand ? given to the CPM’s peasant wing on the eve of a Singur gathering of farmers.

Apparently satisfied with Sen’s words, CPM leaders would organise a “voluntary” sale of land by farmers at the Singur block development office tomorrow.

“We will see to it that multi-crop land is spared as much as possible. The process will begin within a few days,’’ Sen said after a marathon meeting with members of the Krishak Sabha, the party’s peasant wing.

Food minister Naren De, who hails from Hooghly, and Anil Basu, a CPM member of Parliament also from the area, attended the meeting where officials of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and the Hooghly administration were present.

The administration has been asked to finalise the list of plots to be acquired from willing farmers and draw the boundary of the project area so that a notification banning sale of land to promoters can be issued.

The Krishak Sabha has already put out a leaflet on behalf of 208 farmers who are ready to sell their land.

With the process in motion, WBIDC will apply within a week to the district authorities seeking acquisition of land, industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen said.

“This will set the ball rolling for land acquisition with a notification to farmers under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act,” he added.

The land department has made it mandatory for all “land-requiring bodies” to submit detailed project reports before initiating acquisition.

Tata Motors would not be required to do this as the cabinet has already cleared its plan and declared it a “project in public interest”.

“We already know the contours of the project. The project report will come later. Our goal is to complete acquisition in six months according to the policy approved by the state cabinet. Once we are ready with the outline of the plots to be acquired, we will ask the Tatas to do the topological survey,’’ the industry secretary said.

Anil Basu said the government had accepted the demand for sparing multi-crop land and human settlements. “The minister told us that double-crop land would be avoided as much as possible while triple-crop land would not be touched. He has also assured us of adequate compensation to land-losers,’’ he added.

Balai Sabui, a CPM peasant leader from Singur, said triple-crop land irrigated by deep tube wells would not be included in the project area.

According to Basu, the minister had agreed to consider a proposal to set up a commercial complex to provide alternative livelihood to land-losers in the vicinity of the project area. “It is for the Tatas to decide about direct employment of land-losers since we cannot expect them to recruit untrained people.’’