Tata Motors left Singur, epicentre of the farm-versus-factory debate that transformed Bengal politics, 16 years ago but the infamous “amra-ora (us-them)” divide still persists in this pocket of Hooghly.

Then Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had coined the expression “amra-ora” during the land acquisition controversy in Nandigram and Singur in 2006-07, which eventually catapulted the Trinamool Congress into power at the cost of the CPM.

In Singur, 37km from Calcutta, “amra” then described the farmers willing to part
with their land for the proposed Tata Motors small car factory while “ora” were the landholders who did not want to sell.

Saradindu Koley, 37, a resident of Khaser Bheri, said the divide remained, but in a different form. “The ruling Trinamool is now ‘amra’ whereas the rest of the farmers like us are ‘ora’,” he said.

Koley and others alleged that after the land acquired for the aborted factory — rendered uncultivable by construction — was returned to farmers in 2016, the authorities helped only Trinamool leaders and their associates turn their plots cultivable again. Other farmers were left high and dry.

The state government had returned the land with much fanfare after the Supreme Court quashed the acquisition of 997 acres of farmland for the Tata Motors project in Singur and ordered the plots returned to their 9,117 original owners.

As a symbolic celebration of her party’s triumphant anti-land acquisition movement, chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself sowed mustard seeds at the site in October 2016.

“Major structures constructed by the Tatas on the land were dismantled by the PWD and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation,” a villager said.

“The local panchayat was supposed to remove the debris to turn the plots cultivable. But it restricted the effort to plots owned by Trinamool leaders and their associates.”

Koley said he was unable to use his entire 2-bigha plot eight years after it was returned to him.

A 2007 image of the under-construction Tata Motors factory in Singur. File picture

“I could arrange for ₹50,000 to hire an earthmover to remove the debris from 1 bigha of my land. If I wanted to clean up the entire 2 bighas, I would have had to spend ₹1 lakh, which I could not afford,” he said.

As for the 1 bigha cleared of debris, Koley said he was forced to cultivate sesame seeds on it instead of a cash crop like potato.

“Filling of the plot and construction on it by the Tatas had increased the height of the land. So, it became impossible to get enough water to the plot to cultivate paddy or potatoes,” he said.

The hope of a job at the Tata Motors factory had prompted Koley to enrol in a diploma course in mechanical engineering at a nearby private engineering college. But his hopes were dashed after Ratan Tata decided to take the Nano plant to Sanand in Gujarat.

Anil Das, 38, another farmer, said his family had got back nearly 3 bighas of land from the factory site.

“But we could not cultivate the plot as we could not remove the debris…. My family spent a handsome amount to make me a diploma engineer. Now, we don’t even have the Rs 50,000 required to clear the debris from just 1 bigha land,” he said.

Das and other villagers said Trinamool leaders from Beraberi gram panchayat, under which the majority of the plots fall, had engaged labourers under the 100-day job scheme to clear debris from plots in the Beraberi and Bajemelia areas in 2018-19.

“But plots in the Khaser Bheri, Sahanapara and Singher Bheri areas remain uncultivable as the panchayat leaders did not implement the 100-day job scheme in these areas,” said Sudeb Malek, a resident of Khaser Bheri.

“The panchayat leaders also used their position to install more than 10 submersible pumps, given by the agriculture department, in Beraberi and Bajemelia while only three or four submersible pumps were allotted to the remaining areas.”

Villagers alleged that of the 997 acres acquired and later returned, cultivation takes place barely on 400 acres.

“Of the 400 acres, at least 300 acres are owned by Trinamool leaders and their associates. These leaders cultivate paddy and potato as they get enough water from the submersible pumps installed near their fields in addition to having got their plots cleared of debris,” a villager in Sahanapara said, requesting anonymity.

Das said: “The majority of the villagers continue to struggle as they have the land but cannot till it.”

Local Trinamool leaders refused comment and advised this correspondent to get in touch with Becharam Manna, party MLA from Singur. Manna did not pick up calls to his phone.

While the farmers’ plight has gone unaddressed, Singur has remained at the centre of election campaigns, with the BJP and the CPM blaming Trinamool for the situation.

An unfazed Trinamool has continued to project Singur as a milestone in its battle against forcible land acquisition, which it claims compelled the Centre to change the national land acquisition law in 2014.

Singur is part of the Hooghly seat where Locket Chatterjee of the BJP is pitted against fellow actress Rachana Banerjee of Trinamool this election.

Locket, who had wrested the seat from Trinamool in 2019, is up against the popularity of Rachana’s television show Didi No. 1 and the Centre’s failure to cut down farm input prices.

The main issues in this agriculture-heavy seat are the farm distress stemming from increased input costs – for instance, the prices of fertilisers and pesticides that are controlled by the Centre --- and the lack of employment opportunities.

Koley and Das said they had decided to leave the state after the polls in search of jobs. “We have some friends in Pune; we plan to go there to look for jobs,” Das said.

Hooghly votes today