Trinamul remained defiant on Monday and its state government began exploring legal options in the wake of the Singur compensation verdict in favour of Tata Motors by an arbitration panel on Sunday, while the CPM and the BJP tried using the issue to politically corner the ruling dispensation.

Bengal finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the state government was going to challenge the order of the tribunal allowing Tata Motors to recover Rs 765.68 crore — with an interest of 11 per cent per year from September 1, 2016, till recovery — from the state-run West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) as compensation for the sunk cost in the Singur automobile factory.

As a result, the value of the sum works out to over Rs 1,350 crore as of now.

“The Supreme Court had stated that the manner in which the land for the project was acquired by the CPM-led Left Front government in Singur was unconstitutional. The apex court had made it abundantly clear that the land was forcefully acquired from farmers by the CPM-led government,” said Bhattacharya, adding the pact between the WBIDC and Tata Motors was done in the Left regime.

She was referring to the August 31, 2016 judgment, in which the Supreme Court had held that the land acquisition was illegal and void and quashed the acquisition proceedings.

“This situation here is of the CPM’s making,” added Bhattacharya.

Tata Motors, which left the Singur site in the face of mounting agitation by “land losers” led by then Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee in 2008, pressed a compensation claim of Rs 934 crore, citing a clause in the lease deed that the carmaker signed with the WBIDC in March 2007.

Trinamul sources said seniors in the state government have started consulting lawyers to challenge the arbitration tribunal order.

“The chief minister will respond officially on the issue in a day or two. All aspects are in consideration, as every option is being explored. This will not be taken lying down,” said a source.

According to a senior MP, the leadership was far from losing sleep over the political impact of the latest development, which has got the CPM and the BJP excited.

“Although the Opposition is trying to turn this into a major issue, this is not going to make any difference electorally. Elections have been fought on this as a key issue here in her (Mamata’s) 12-year reign, and not once has it been
favoured by the voters,” he said.

Tata Motors was forced to shift the plant from Singur in Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat, which has since evolved into an automobile hub after the Tatas set up the Nano factory, with the backing of Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat then.

The CPM mounted a scathing offensive on the Mamata government in response to the verdict.

“The buck for driving Tata Motors out — the far-reaching consequences of which is no secret — stops with none other than her (Mamata). She has to take responsibility instead of squandering crores and crores in taxpayers’ money on litigation,” said CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty. CPM state secretary Md Salim said earlier that the state was paying for Mamata’s “arrogance and destructive” politics.

The BJP’s state unit, jubilant at the judicial setback for the state government, said the party would not allow Mamata to pay the compensation from the state exchequer.

“We will fight inside the Assembly and outside, to keep this destructive state government from using taxpayers’ money to pay this compensation. She (Mamata) should use her party’s funds to pay for this,” said the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Singur farmers who were against the factory said they wanted compensation from the company for 300 acres that turned barren because of concrete structures set up there.

“We don’t know what the state government will do regarding the compensation to the Tatas. Our concern is the land that was returned to us is in a condition that is no longer useful. We repeatedly demanded the return of the land in the condition that the government of the day had acquired it,” said farmer Jayanta Ghosh.

Doodh Kumar Mondal, a farmer and leader of the Singur Krishi Jomi Bachao committee, which resisted the project under the then Opposition leader Mamata, said her government was unable to restore the fertility of the land on which concrete structures came up.

“I own half an acre of land. We want the Tatas to give us compensation,” he said.

Farmers who willingly gave land for the project rued the loss of the project.

“There would have been no petty issues of compensation and fertility if the Tatas could have set up the factory. Trinamul can offer all sorts of explanations, but the party is responsible for depriving generations of people of a better future...,” said one such farmer.