Singur: CPI(M) blames 1894 Land Acquisition Act

New Delhi, Sep 2 (PTI) CPI(M) today said the landacquisition by erstwhile Left Front government in West Bengalfor a car project in Singur was under 1894 Land AcquisitionAct which did not protect farmers adequately. "The acquisition process had to be undertaken under the1894 Land Acquisition Act, which was the only legal instrumentavailable at that time. This was an Act which did not protectthe interests of the farmers adequately," the Politburo saidin a statement. In a detailed reaction on the August 31 apex courtverdict setting aside the controversial land acquisition, theparty politburo also expressed its commitment "to improve" the2013 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in LandAcquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, whichreplaced the "anachronistic" 1894 law. It also stated that it shall oppose all alleged effortsincluding those by BJP-led Central government aimed atdiluting the 2013 Act. "The then Left Front government had intended through this(car) project (by Tata) to develop industry and thereby createjobs in the state. On land acquisition, it said the Left party had earlieracknowledged in its Central Committee review report of the2011 assembly elections that "the administrative and politicalmistakes in this regard proved costly". Recalling the TMC government had in its first tenurebrought a Bill in the state assembly to return land to thosewho had refused to take the compensation after the project wasabandoned, the Politburo said the CPI(M) had then stated thatthe land should be returned to all erstwhile owners instead. "It had (also) stated that there should be nodiscrimination between those who had accepted the compensationand those who did not," the Politburo said. In a setback to CPI(M)-led Left Front, the SC had setaside the acquisition of around 1000 acres by the Left Frontgovernment to set up Tata Motors’ ambitious Nano carmanufacturing plant. The land acquisition became a political flashpoint in thestate from 2006 for the next few years. The anti-landacquisition protests became one of the principal reasonsbehind the fall of the 34-year-old Left regime in 2011. PTIENM RCJ RGRCJ