Singur, Sept. 16: In Singur, there are "willing" farmers and there are "unwilling" farmers. And then, there is Sailen Sahana, who is both.
The 55-year-old railway contractor, who lives across the road from the abandoned Tata Motors plant, is an anomaly in the Singur saga as he has been categorised as both "willing" and "unwilling" by the government.
Sahana, who had willingly parted with a 6.5-bigha plot belonging to his family, had been forced to give up another 1.5 bighas of his own for the project. Today, he received the parcha (possession deed) for the 6.5 bighas. Next week, he will collect a compensation of around Rs 4 lakh for the 1.5-bigha plot along with its parcha.
"I am happy to get back all the land along with the compensation for the part I was unwilling to give. On the combined plot of 8 bighas, I intend to set up a small factory," said Sahana, who plans to invest around Rs 60 lakh and hire at least 40 people.
Sahana, who was in the process of setting up a factory for bicycle tyres on the land before the Nano project was announced, said he would like to build a unit for manufacturing rubber goods like slippers and tyre tubes.
"This will be my little contribution to bring industry to the area. Most people here want to return to agriculture," he said.
Sahana was among 3,000 "willing" farmers for whom the government sent out the parchas today. Next week, the government will issue 6,000 more such documents.
"We had started going to people's homes to hand over the parchas. That was the original plan. But it's very difficult to execute that as a number of people have shifted to other places. So now, we will send the parchas to the panchayat offices, and villagers will have to come and collect them," said a panchayat functionary in Gopalnagar.
Sources in the Hooghly administration said the farmers who had willingly given their land for the project had not shown much interest in registering themselves for compensation and parchas. The sources said the "willing" farmers feared political vendetta.
"Everything is working out smoothly for the unwilling farmers as they had backed the current ruling party a decade ago. The willing farmers are being viewed by some sections as pro-Left. Many of the willing farmers are avoiding the registration process for fear of being targeted," said a source.
The rush to complete the process of land return and compensation before the deadline set by the Supreme Court had prompted government officials to initially visit the homes of the "willing" farmers to distribute the parchas. But visiting each of the 9,000-odd homes proved to be a tall task and the idea was dropped.
For the second consecutive day today, hundreds of people with mistakes in their compensation cheques flocked to the block development officer's office.
An official conceded that the mistakes were the result of rushing through the process because of the "14-day deadline" given to them by their "higher-ups".
"We have been receiving many complaints. This would not have been the case had we been given a month to carry out the work," he said.
