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Singur needs 4 more yrs to grow crops

Last Updated 20 October 2016, 19:46 IST
Despite claims by the West Bengal government that the land at Singur, where the Tata Motors factory previously stood, is cultivable again, farmers believe it will take at least two years to grow crops like potato on the land.

 The agricultural hamlet in Hooghly district has been traditionally known for its bumper potato harvest.

A large section of farmers, who owe the repossession of their land to a Supreme Court verdict, believe the soil will need a lot of churning and tilling to regain its earlier fertility.

True to their instincts, developed over years of farming, the land acquired to set up the proposed Nano factory can now grow only crops like mustard, sesame and pulses.

Before the factory was set up, a large percentage of land at Singur produced as many as five crops, including potato, rice, cauliflower, jute and variety of pulses.

While growing mustard and sesame was an afterthought for most farmers, the current state of the land forced them to grow these crops. On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was present to hand over the physical possession of land, as she distributed the land deeds to farmers on September 14.

She also spread mustard seeds as a symbolic measure to restart farming on 997 acres, which was stopped in 2006, when the erstwhile Left Front government acquired the land to help set up the Tata plant.

Even though local Trinamool Congress MLA and former agriculture minister, Becharam Manna, claimed the state government is returning the land in a cultivable state, agriculture and soil experts express doubts that after lying fallow for a decade, the land is not likely to retain its fertility. While the plant stood on more than 250 acres of the total acquired land, since the area was low-lying, its height was increased by piling tonnes of sand, fly ash and solid waste.

While this process itself would have rendered the land infertile, Manna claimed around 400 acres are ready for cultivation.

Mamata handed over 23 plots spread over 6.71 acres on Thursday, with plans to hand over 50 to 60 land plots everyday.

 The government is also installing 50 mini-deep tube-wells for better irrigation, besides distributing free seeds, fertilisers, and providing a one-time grant of Rs 10,000 to each farmer.

Farmers like Ganesh Koley, Naba Kumar Ghosh and Jugal Kishore Ghosh, however, did not seem to share the government’s confidence over the land’s renewed cultivability. Jugal said that the government decided to start with mustard because crops like mustard, sesame and pulses release nitrogen and help land gain fertility.

 “We’ve to grow such crops for a few years till the land regains nutrition. It could take as long as four years for the land to be properly cultivable so that we can grow potato or rice,” he said.
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(Published 20 October 2016, 19:46 IST)

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