MLAs take farmers to Singur site

SINGUR: After a meeting in Singur, minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya accompanied by Becharam Manna and Hooghly zilla parishad member Manik Das led a group of farmers to the land where the surveyors were at work inside the Singur compound. "We propose to give you this land. This is not the land you owned. But we are ready to give you an equal quantum of land here.We brought you here for physical identification of the land.
Tell us if any of you is averse to this," Manna told the farmers. The farmers were overjoyed. "We are very happy with the decision. We have been waiting for this for long," said "unwilling farmer" Jugal Chandra Koley.
The beneficiaries were then taken to the block office where the land department officials recorded them as witnesses to the land identification process. Manna, who had earlier announced that the farmers will get the "land deeds" on Tuesday, said the district administration will hand over the papers on Wednesday after the verification process is complete.
The first batch of beneficiaries comprise 12 unwilling farmers who didn't take compensation cheques -- Jamuna Ghorui, Jugal Chandra Koley, Asok Dhara, Rajkumar Dhara, Nabakumar Koley, Ramkrishna Koley, Pradip Koley, Shyamal Koley, Kanakbala Koley, Lakshman Koley, Sibu Dhara and Sankar Dhara
Later, Manna went to Gopalnagar Ghoshpara and Beraberi Purbapara and urged the locals to make a list of the unregistered bargadars and land labourers who used to work on the land before acquisition. "The state can't give them land. But it has decided to compensate them," he said.