Tata may bid adieu to Singur SEZ

August 31, 2008	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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The Tata group may soon bid adieu to his West Bengal venture. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his core team fought a lonely battle for Tata’s Nano project. No less than six chief ministers have already welcomed Ratan Tata to roll out his Nano project. Be that as may be, but if the Tatas withdraw from West Bengal, it will not only be a major setback for Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation drive, but will marginally boost future socio-political unrest over setting up of mega industries. CPI (M) leader Mr Basu agrees. “Yes, it will be a setback for us. But Mr Tata knows it well how sincere we were in facilitating the project. We have an open mind to talk to anyone and resolve the deadlock,” he says.

In West Bengal, the Tata project became a victim of a tussle between the CPI (M) leadership and the Trinamool Congress. For state chief minister and CPI(M), the Nano project could be a symbol of the new-found spirit of industrialisation in the state, which has over the years lost out to the new hubs of corporate excellence such as Bangalore and Hyderabad. While it could be an icon for industrialisation for Mr Bhattacharjee, for Trinamool’s Mamata Banerjee, it has been a do-or-die battle for getting goodwill of the farmers who were given a raw deal while taking away their farm land. The situation may improve now, if the state government comes out with a better compensation package for the displaced farmers.

Whereas an Act on resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R), which is to be tabled during the coming session of Parliament, will settle many issues on land acquisition, the government, in fact, has done a fairly good job in facilitating India Inc to set up over 500 SEZs (Special Economic Zone) in the country for which large-scale land acquisition was a must. The man behind the process, commerce secretary G K Pillai says it was made very clear in case of SEZs that there will be no compulsory land acquisition. “If one farmer in the middle of the acquired land objects to the acquisition process, we won’t notify that SEZ. There is no land dispute in any of 513 SEZs which have been formally approved. For the last one year or so, there has been no problem regarding land acquisition in SEZs,” he claims.

However, Singur project has been iconic in nature, and that’s why corporate bigwigs ranging from Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani to Bharti chief Sunil Bharti Mittal have extended support to Ratan Tata. Says a Tata Motor spokesperson, “We really welcome the support that industrialists across the country have shown for us. It just goes on to show that an investment of this nature is of paramount importance since it generates tremendous direct and indirect employment. On the ground, we are still hopeful about Singur and trying our best to solve the problem.”

News Published Under:   Special Economic Zones |

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