Asection of Singur farmers has raised a demand to reclaim their barren agricultural land and develop as cultivable land as promised by the state government. A group of Singur farmers today set out to submit a memorandum to the governor demanding the state government should keep its promise to reclaim uncultivable land area as cultivable land. The total 997 acres of land within the aborted Tata project area cover the five mouzas of Singur, Bera Behari , Kasher Behari, Gopalnagar, Bazemaliya and Singher Beheri.

The Gopalnagar mouza however was unaffected by the construction and modification work done by Tata group and the fertility of farmland in Gopalnagar mouza remained unhampered. Therefore soon after regaining physical possession of the land in the Gopalnagar mouza, agriculture was promptly initiated. As a symbolic start of agriculture by the Singur farmers, the chief minister first scattered mustard seeds in Gopalnagar mouza and Mahestala areas.

The farmers raised paddy, potato, mustard and pulses. However some areas under Khaser Beri, Bazemaliya and Singher Beri remained uncultivated. The state government has been continuing the work to extract the deep-rooted iron rods and concrete slabs deeply imbedded in more than 300 acres of land area, but it has been going quite slowly. The Tata Group, to suit their purpose had spread layers of inferior quality of soil and sand and reclamation of the affected land area is going on at a very slow pace.

Hence a section of affected farmers, even after gaining possession of their land till today could not raise any crops. The BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee, after winning the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat gave a call of ‘Singur Chalo’, and spoke about her plans for setting up industry and creating job opportunities for jobless youths in Singur. But even after six months, Ms Chatterjee could not give any assurance of setting up Industries and providing job opportunities to the jobless youths of Singur and the district as promised by her in her election campaign.

The affected farmers whose land still remains to be reclaimed and made suitable for agriculture purpose are now facing a dilemma whether to try and raise crops or wait for the promises of Locket Chatterjee of setting up Industries in Singur to come true. However a section of affected farmers has opted to go for agriculture. They are however much irked over the very slow pace of reclamation of the affected land area. Today they set out to submit a memorandum to the state governor demanding prompt reclamation of their land into cultivable land.

Susanta, one of the affected farmers, said, “We gave our land area for the Tata Nano project to come up but after the exit of the Tatas the hope of industries being set up in Singur is now just a day dream. Hence we want the state government should promptly reclaim our land and convert into cultivable land as promised by the state government while giving us the legal procession of land. Today we are going to submit a memorandum to the state governor pressing our demand.”