Tatas could have been more accommodative to solve Singur: Congress

Kolkata, Oct 5: West Bengal Pradesh Congress spokesman and senior party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay in a statement on Sunday said that the Singur crisis could have been solved had the Tatas been accommodative in giving up land more than 70 acres from within the 1,000-acre “Nano” project area to the unwilling farmers.

Bandyopadhyay said that giving up some more land on the part of Tatas was possible considering that the company had been manufacturing at least 10 different models in its factory at Pune whose land area measured only 1050 acres.

He claimed, "On a 1050-acre land the Tatas are manufacturing at least 10 models of car - Safari, Indica, Sumo, Fiesta and heavy and medium vehicles like trucks. But to produce just one model of car the company has acquired 997.11 acres of fertile farmland of which 645.67 is the core area to produce the car."

Bandyopadhyay had visited the Tata Motors factory in Pune in November, 2006.

On October 3, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata decided to pull-out “Nano” small car project out of Singur, following a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Kolkata.

Trouble began after the West Bengal Government acquired 1000 acres of farmland for the Tata Motors'''' small car plant at Singur last year.

The State Government offered compensation, which some farmers rejected.

Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee then took up the fight of the farmers, demanding that at least 400 acres of the acquired land be returned to farmers. (ANI)