Farmers in Singur find themselves in Catch-22 situation

Singur, once the hotbed of political dynamics in West Bengal now bears the melancholy of farmers who ended up being in a Catch-22 situation.

Even after getting back their land after Tata Motors' exit, Singur farmers stand clueless as land is turning barren.

They are looking forward to getting a solution between industry and agriculture.

Even after a decade has passed since the project was suspended, leaving 997.11 acres barren in Singur, the area is still known as 'Tata Nano factory'.

It consists of three panchayats namely Kejidi, Gopalnogor and Beraberi.

Now farmers carry out potato farming in some portions of this land in small quantity.

The protest commenced due to forced land acquisition by the then Left Front government for building Tata Motors car industry.

The stir of 2006 in Singur soon turned into a historic anti-land acquisition movement by the farmers that received foremost support from Trinamool Congress and later by other political parties and intellectuals crossing state as well as international borders.

The movement ended in 2011.

Singur anti-land acquisition movement is one of two major movements that propelled Mamata Banerjee-led TMC to dethrone the 34 years old mighty Left Front rule from Bengal.

The other movement that was instrumental to pave the way for the TMC government was the 2007 Nandigram agitation.

The snatched land was given back to the farmers legally in 2016 after Supreme Court's verdict.

However, the major concern of farmers now remains how to make the land cultivable.

Probir Patro, one of the many whose land was snatched during the agitation received it back after SC's order in 2016, however, he is in a 'Catch 22' situation now.

Despite having their own land the farmers cultivate on other's land for livelihood.

Along with this another section of farmers coexist in Singur who calls themselves 'farmers of yesteryears' and currently have settled for other means of livelihood, through which they somehow manage to earn their day-to-day meal.

Against the two heavyweights, CPI(M) has fielded 28-year-old Srijan Bhattacharya as its candidate from Singur.

The candidates here have vowed for industrialisation, development as well as agriculture while addressing their public meetings.