THE FATE of the prestigious Japan assisted freight corridor project of the Indian Railways may be jeopardised if the farmers and sharecroppers of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat follow the Singur path of Mamata Banerjee.

 

Mamata Banerjee, the Railways Minister, takes pride in driving out the Tatas from Singur causing much embarrassment to the ruling Left Front in West Bengal and depriving the state of an industrial turn around 

 

She also demanded the abolition of the Government’s role in acquiring land for industrial purposes and return of 400 acres of land to the farmers. But her ministry has asked the Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat Governments to acquire land for the proposed freight corridor and the two state authorities had started acquisition land for the Railways strangely at a much lower price than what the Left rulers had offered in Singur.

 

The farmers and sharecroppers of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have already started separate agitations against the acquisition of highly fertile agriculture land for the proposed freight corridor.

 

Accusing Banerjee of maintaining double standards, political observers in West Bengal said such agitations by the farmers might jeopardise the fate of many a big projects in the country, including the freight corridor.

 

“It seems the Railways have to pay heavily for what their Minister has done as an opposition leader in West Bengal stalling industrial and infrastructure projects on the grounds of acquisition of agricultural land,” they observed.

 

“There cannot be separate rules for separates states in this country on acquisition of land and the railways may have to abandon ambitious projects the way the Tatars had to leave Singer. Strange is the politics in this country,” the observers pointed out.

 

Banerjee may have threatened to walk out of a cabinet meeting demanding absolute dilution of the state’s role in land acquisition but her Ministry is fully dependent on the State Governments for acquisition of land for their projects. “If we accept the demand of Ms Banrjee most of the Central Government ministries will have to abandon their projects, which the country cannot afford to do,” the observers say.

 

They said the state must have stronger role in land acquisition to protect in the interest of the farmers and prevent the land mafias from exploiting the cultivators.    

 

They said after the Tata’s departure the Singur land could not be left idle and the State Government would have to rope in some big projects to be set up there. “Ms Banerjee now offers to set up a coach factory in Singur. If she sets up a coach factory then what was wrong with the Nano project. At least Nano project would have provide more employment than a coach factory,” they pointed out.

 

The State Government had shown the abandoned land to the representatives of a foreign automobile company for car manufacturing and state-owned BHEL for setting up of two 800 MW power units.

 

“No one knows what will happen to the abandoned land of Singur. But it is learnt that some businessmen, close to Ms Banerjee have already acquired land in and around Singur to capitalise on the opportunities, which may be created with the setting up of a big project there,” they added.