Singur vs. Gurgaon?

An article by West Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen goes into the details of the Singur project. He says a total of 997.11 acres of land have been acquired and admits that quite a few landowners are yet to accept the compensation amount. “Eleven thousand owners of 690.79 acres of lands have accepted their payments. Owners of roughly 300 acres of lands are yet to accept the compensation. The number of these owners may be a little more than 1100,” he says.

He says that the lands of those ‘unwilling’ land owners are not contiguous plots and argues that “even a child will understand that releasing those plots will mean dumping the whole project”. Noting that there had been legal battles over such similar issues earlier, he says the Supreme Court had given a clear verdict in this regard that a piece of land cannot be returned to its previous owner once it has been acquired. Drawing a parallel with the Maruti factory and its ancillary units in Gurgaon which are spread over 1250 acres of land, Sen says the amount of land acquired in Singur is less than the actual requirement for producing 3.5 lakh cars per annum.

A bourgeois stunt

Another article by CITU president M. K. Pandhe talks about the draft national policy on safety, health and environment at workplace and claims that the document looks like an ‘election manifesto’ of bourgeois parties, with a lot of promises not meant for implementation. It states that the government firmly believes that without safe, clean environment and healthful working conditions, social justice and economic growth cannot be achieved and that safe and healthy working environment is recognised as a fundamental human right. He says. “The firm belief of the government is not seen in practical implementation today...”

... contd.