“Do you know how fast the banks here have grown? I have been informed that the Singur branch of Allahabad Bank was promoted from scale 2 to scale 4,” said Prasenjit Chakraborty, BDO of Singur.

The change has been good but not many are happy with how it came about. Like Astibala Ghosh, a 70-year-old widow whose land is part of the Tata Motors site. She hasn’t accepted the compensation amount the government announced for her eight decimels of land. “I had nothing except that piece of land and now they have taken it away,” she said.

Others, however, are not complaining. Earlier, the small farmers barely managed to grow more than what they needed for their own consumption and the ‘big’ landowners—those with more than three acres—hoarded their produce of potato and paddy. But now, they want to put their money to better, more profitable, use. Some of them are investing in the service sector, opening mobile-phone stores or car-hire businesses. “I am ready. When the factory begins work, I will launch a car-hire service. I am sure it will be a profitable business, more profitable than hoarding paddy or potatoes,” said Asim Santra of Beraberi. Work at the plant has been halted following an agitation by the Trinamool Congress.

In Singur, caught in political stalemate and niggling uncertainties over whether the Nano project will be shifted out of West Bengal, the farmers working on the fields right outside the plant seem perfectly at ease with the 14 km boundary wall around it. Sometimes, the same family sends some of its members to the factory and some to work in the paddy fields.

... contd.