West Bengal CM is in damage control mode after Kolkata High Court dismissed the  Singur land acquisition Act 2011. She has convened  a meeting of Krishi Jami Jibon Jibika Rakha Committee, a virtually defunct panel that had played a key role in the movement against farmland acquisition.
Banerjee declined to speak to the media. However, Agriculture Minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya said the committee has decided to start afresh the movement for return of land to unwilling farmers.
“Along with the legal battle, the committee will start a movement with the farmers,” Bhattacharya said. Committee representatives said they will go to Singur and renew the movement at the grass roots.
Members of some Left mass organisations, civil liberty groups, and parties like the Party of Democratic Socialism, Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), the Siddiqullah Chowdhury-led People’s Democratic Conference of India, and Janata Dal-United attended the 150-minute deliberation.
A resolution passed at the meeting said: “We are committed to return the land to the unwilling farmers. Proper actions would be taken to uphold the rights of the farm workers and Bargadars (sharecroppers).”
PDS general secretary Samir Putatunda said: “We will carry on our movement. The movement will go on along with the legal battles.”
He, however, did not elaborate. “Today we cannot say more.”
Terming the land law, enacted by the West Bengal government last year to return land taken from the farmers as “unconstitutional”, a division bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Mrinal Kanti Chaudhuri Friday ruled sections of compensation in the legislation were in conflict with the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
State government counsel Kalyan Bandopadhyay said the government would appeal to the Supreme Court, while Banerjee reiterated her government’s commitment to return the land to the farmers.
The decision caused gloom among most of the affected farmers in Singur in Hooghly district, 40 km from Kolkata.
Automobile giant Tata Motors had moved a division bench against Justice I.P. Mukerji’s Sep 28 ruling that upheld the law passed by the Banerjee government soon after assuming office last year to return 400 acres to farmers.
A total of 997 acres of land in Singur was leased to the Tatas by the Left Front government for the firm’s Nano small car project, along with several vendors who were to set up ancillary units at the site.
Meanwhile,  Mamata Banerjee said, on Facebook  that the moral support was fueling the struggle for the cause of the farmers.
“Thank you very much for your overwhelming response to my post on Singur yesterday. This has deeply touched my heart. Your moral support at this juncture is a great source of inspiration to continue our struggle for the cause of farmers,” wrote Banerjee in response to her Friday’s post which received 1,133 comments and nearly 1,800 likes.