Farmers who took compensation in ‘unwilling’ list

The list includes the names of farmers such as Shib Narayan Das and Udayan Das of Gopalnagar mouza in Beraberi village in Singur who said they had no clue as to how their names appeared in the official Gazette.

In page number 242 of The Kolkata Gazette (registered no WB/SC-247),the details of Shib Narayan Das’s plot have been included. The land is owned by his wife Manju Das (serial number 509) and the compensation amount offered is shown as Rs 2.28 lakh.

The name of Udayan Das of Beraberi is mentioned in page 189 of the Gazette notification. “We accepted the compensation in 2007. I had 39 bighas of land and I accepted the compensation at the rate of Rs 6 lakh per bigha. Now,we find that our names have also been included in the list. We will file a petition in court,challenging the list of unwilling farmers,” Udayan Das said. He,incidentally,is among those who are demanding the return of the Tatas to Singur.

Similarly,Shib Narayan Das of Gopalnagar also confirmed that he had taken compensation four years ago and he is clueless as to how his name is in the list.

There are about 30 other “willing farmers” whose names are in the list of unwilling farmers: like Kanchan Das of Beraberi,Haren and Narwn Mal of Madhusudanpur,Debashish Das and Jayanti Das of Khaserbheri. They have all confirmed that they accepted compensation cheques distributed by the state government in 2007-08.

This apart,the list of unwilling farmers has thrown up major discrepancies. Confusion looms large over the total number of unwilling farmers. While the state government’s list says 2,800 farmers are yet to accept compensation,the Singur Block Development Office received 1,700 applications ever since it asked unwilling farmers to submit documents for land return.

Application forms for land return were distributed to 5,000 farmers.

On the other hand,a list of unwilling farmers prepared during the Left Front rule says 2,200 farmers did not take compensation.

Another issue that has cropped up is that only about 87 acres of land out of a total of 400 acres earmarked for return have been categorized as “A” category,which means free from dispute. The balance land is disputed and it would be difficult to select owners as these plots are under litigation.

Sources said,about 256 acres could be accounted for against which no compensation was taken by farmers.