Singur farmers had just begun to move on from Nano plant blow, then Covid lockdown struck

Many Singur farmers left for cities as their land was left infertile by construction linked to the Tata Nano plant. But now Covid has created new problems for them.

The farmland that was acquired by the then CPI(M) government for the Tata Nano factory in Singur | Moushumi Das Gupta/ThePrint

Singur: Mahadeb Das, Vivekananda Das and Puranjoy Manna of Singur, West Bengal, were working as labourers in different cities when the Covid-19 lockdown struck in March, forcing them to return home.

But awaiting them there was the muddle that made them leave home in the first place. Mahadeb, Vivekananda and Manna are all land-owning farmers, but their farm plots have been of little comfort since they made their way back to them in 2016. 

The plots were part of the 1,000 acres acquired by the former Left Front government for the Tatas to set up a Nano-manufacturing plant in Singur in 2006. 

Work on the company’s plant, meant to usher in a revival of local industry under the Left Front government, began but a massive farmer protest, backed by the then opposition Trinamool Congress, forced it to move out of Bengal by 2007. 

The plots came back to the farmers, and the factory was razed, but debris of the plant, often running deep underground, has left much of the land uncultivable, say local farmers.     

Migration offered a shot at better earnings than they get from the meagre cultivation they are able to pull off on the small patches of land, but Covid has left them picking up the pieces of that life too.

“My land was inside the factory area. So, the character of my land was totally changed. It was converted from agricultural land to commercial land,” said Mahadeb, a leader of the land agitation movement. 

“There was construction on the plot. I have been trying very hard for the last four years to make it fertile, but I’ve failed. Some of us migrated to cities to earn money, but all returned after the lockdown. We are now working under the MGNREGA scheme,” added Das, who is also the Trinamool Congress block president. 

MGNREGA or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a government scheme that seeks to assure village inhabitants of 100 days of paid labour every year.

The West Bengal government claims to be doing its bit for the farmers, including paying them a financial allowance of Rs 2,000/month and arranging work for returned migrants under the MGNREGA. But Singur residents claim they are still struggling, harking back to the time over decade ago, when they were financially well-off.

‘In a precarious condition’

In 2006, the land of around 14,000 farmers in Singur was acquired for a Tata Motors factory to produce the Nano, billed as the cheapest car at Rs 1 lakh but now reportedly facing an uncertain future.  

According to the official records of the West Bengal government, around 11,000 farmers willingly gave their land for the project, while around 3,000 farmers and sharecroppers opposed the acquisition, with their protests taking the shape of a massive movement with the support of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee’s backing of the protests is seen as one of the major factors behind her ascent to power in the state after 34 years of Left rule.

The Tatas subsequently scrapped the project and moved the plant to Sanand in Gujarat. 

In 2016, following a Supreme Court order, the land was returned to farmers, but, despite several attempts made by the state government and the farmers, much of it remains infertile, a mix of soil, cement blocks and iron chunks.  

This forced many of the farmers to move away, with some even trying to sell off their plots. With the Covid lockdown bringing them back, farmers say they are getting by with the help of MGNREGA, performing such work as digging ponds or cleaning bushes and shrubs in the area that the Tata project occupied. 

Manna, one such farmer, said he was “in a precarious condition” when he got his five bighas of land back in 2016, but the plot didn’t help uplift his lot. 

“It was full of junk, bushes, iron slabs etc. We worked on the land, cleaned it. But we could not produce anything,” he added. “Our financial condition was very bad. I went to Delhi and started working as a labourer in the jewellery-making industry.

“I used to earn Rs 9,000 per month in Delhi. Now I earn around 5,000 per month under the government scheme,” he added. “But when we had 5 bighas of (cultivable) land, we were financially well-off, had unlimited income from land.” 

Vivekananda Das, a farmer with 7 bighas of land, faced similar issues, and subsequently found a job as a carpenter in Kolkata. He has no job now, and says he is trying to grow seasonal vegetables in some patches of land. 

“Last year, I tried to cultivate around 2 to 3 bighas, I worked very hard for that, but did not get a good yield,” he added. “I started working as a carpenter in Kolkata. But now I have no job. I cannot go to the cities until the local train services resume.” 

According to the landowners ThePrint spoke to, only around 200 of the nearly 1,000 acres could be cultivated this year by the farmers. 

‘Govt looking out for farmers’ 

Singur has been a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress since 2001, much before the 2011 Left Front rout, but a shock awaited Mamata Banerjee in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls last year as her party received 11,000 votes less than the BJP in the Singur assembly segment.

The Singur assembly seat is part of the Hooghly parliamentary constituency, where Locket Chatterjee of the BJP won last year. 

According to a senior Trinamool Congress leader, Didi, as Banerjee is known, was hurt by the results in Singur. “We lost 18 seats to the BJP, but Singur shocked us and Didi,” the leader said.

As part of wider efforts to intensify outreach in the area, the Trinamool Congress Sunday organised a blood donation camp in Singur. 

Asked about the lot of the farmers, four-term Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya of the Trinamool Congress said the government has been looking out for them.

“The farmers must remember what Mamata Banerjee has done for them. For the last 10 years, she has been continuously supporting the farmers. They are getting a financial allowance of Rs 2,000 per month, free rations and now they are getting jobs under the NREGA scheme,” he said. “The government also tried endlessly to make the land fertile. The government is still trying.”