Singur

On a sunny afternoon just two days before Durga Puja in 2008, then Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata had announced to pull out the ambitious Nano small car project from Singur in West Bengal's

BJP National Secretary Anupam Hazra asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to remove former Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee's name from the pages of history books of the Madhya Shiksha Parshad.

Industry and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee has said talks are on with the Tatas for big-ticket investments in the state.

In Singur, everyone is riding the industry plank in varying degrees. Banerjee, however, has her welfare schemes to rely on, and there are beneficiaries galore

Lockdown has brought lives of a large section to a standstill, with shops shut and people hesitant to go out

Tata Motors has filed a statement of claims amounting to nearly Rs 934 plus interest

Singur, in Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency, rose to national fame in 2006-2007 amid an anti-land acquisition movement against the Left Front government

Curtains came down on Tata Motor's Nano project in West Bengal on October 3, 2008

The West Bengal government is planning to auction the metal scrap and car sheds of Tata Motors lying at the stackyard in Singur, Hooghly

Earlier, the court had cancelled the deal through which the former Left government in Bengal had given land in Singur to Tata Motors

The Bench also ruled that the land acquisition process in Singur for the car project was faulty and was not for public purpose

Govt officials working overtime to dismantle the Tata plant and return land to farmers

The ranks of farmers wanting their land back in other parts of West Bengal have been growing

The acquisition process was bad in law but the reconversion of land for agriculture may be another mistake. Is there a way out?

The apex court had told the West Bengal Government to hand the land back to the farmers in the next 12 weeks

Supreme Court recently struck down the acquisition of 997.11 acres of land by the then CPI-M-led Left Front government in Bengal's Singur

States with high population density must re-imagine industrialisation

After the Supreme Court quashed the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led West Bengal government's acquisition of 997 acres of agricultural land for Tata Motors' small car plant in Singur, the state government is faced with the prospect of scaling down one of its own pet projects - a "mishti hub" (sweets hub) in Bardhaman - in the face of a Singur-like protest. The state government has decided to drop a 10.5-acre site in Alisha village after people who lost land demanded it back citing the Singur verdict and has instead identified two plots, 0.5 acres each and 2.5 km apart. However, traders' associations are not very happy at the prospect of having "a handful of sweet shops" instead of a proper production and export centre.

The Supreme Court (SC) judgment asking for Singur land to be returned to the original owners could likely open several cases of land acquisition carried out before 2009. But, the judgment will have no impact on land being acquired for Smart City projects, claim experts."The judgment again tosses in the air the concept of public interest", said Suhaan Mukherjee, partner at PLR Chambers, which specialises in public policy. The two judges have differed on whether the land acquired for the Tata Nano project in Singur was in public interest.On Wednesday, a two-judge bench ruled as invalid the acquisition of land in Singur by the West Bengal government for a Tata Motors' project made in 2006. The judges have asked the state to return the 997 acres of land to the farmers, since the acquisition made under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 was "perverse and illegal" by the then state government. The Singur land acquisition has been a watershed for land disputes in India. All political parties

The top court told the present West Bengal Government to hand the land back to farmers in the next 12 weeks