Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim on Saturday said Mamata Banerjee fought for fair compensation for land-losers of Singur, the comment coming to justify the Bengal chief minister's recent remarks that she didn't drive away the Tatas from Singur, where the company planned a small car factory.

“The CPM and then West Bengal government drove out the Tatas. It was a conspiracy to show that Mamata Banerjee had driven out the Tatas. But it is not true,” said Hakim in Birbhum’s Suri, where the state government handed over appointment letters to 238 land-losers for the proposed Deocha Pachami coal mine project.

“Mamata-di honoured your demand and gave you proper compensation.... She wanted the same in the case of Singur (so that the farmers got proper compensation). Then too (during the Singur movement) she had also said land should not be taken away by force, killing people,” he added.

He went on to add that Mamata wanted the state government and the Tatas to take land after discussion with the common people.

“Her demand was to take land with the consent of people just like the state government is doing in the case of Deocha-Pachami," added Mamata’s trusted aide.

The 14-year old controversy, often referred to as the farm-versus-factory debate of Bengal, had almost been forgotten till Mamata gave it a fresh lease of life last Wednesday when she said that she or her party had no role in driving Tata Motors out of Singur and accused the CPM for the company'’s exit from Bengal.

She stood by her comment the next day and blamed the CPM for the exit of the Tatas before clarifying that she was only against the forcible acquisition of land. She also pointed out that the Tatas have been investing in Bengal, as she tried to contest the Opposition’s charge that the Singur saga cast a shadow over industrialisation in Bengal.

Opposition parties, especially the Left, have sharpened the attack on Mamata on the Singur issue.

“Firhad Hakim should know that more than 80 percent of the total farmers had given their nod for the project.... Mamata started her movement after Tatas were almost ready to roll out the cars from the factory. Though our government was keen to sit with her on negotiating on the compensation package, she stuck to her demand for return of land for unwilling farmers,” said CPM politburo member Ram Chandra Dome.

“The attempt to justify her movement after 14 years by saying she was fighting for fair compensation is nothing but an attempt to rewrite history...,” he added.

Mamata Banerjee's movement was never for fair compensation,” added CPM's central committee member Shamik Lahiri.

Mamata started an indefinite dharna outside the Tata Motors car plan from August 20, 2008, by accusing that the state government had set up an industry forcefully grabbing land from farmers.

The CPM leaders had then pointed out that the package offered in Singur was exemplary in the country during that time, but negotiations on the issue of compensation were never held.

In Deocha, the state government is offering a compensation package including the price of land according to market rates, a house in a rehabilitation colony and a government job for each land-losing family.

Trinamul leaders like Hakim have been claiming that the package is the best compared to other states in the country.

However, a section of land losers in Deocha are yet to give their nod to sell off their land for the coal mine project. Hakim claimed that the Maoist cadres were invited from other states to derail the project.

“The opposition tried to provoke the people in Deocha-Pachami and tried to bring the Maoist cadres from nearby states to spoil the project that has been taken up to give jobs to lakhs and for future for Bengal," said Hakim.