The Bengal Opposition parties came down heavily on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for driving the Tatas out of the State and asked the Government to bring back India’s top industrial house to Singur.

The attack came soon after the Chief Minister replying to a question in the State Assembly said cultivation has decreased in Singur in the past a few years.

Replying to a question Banerjee said the landed area under cultivation in Singur had come down to 260 acres from 640 acre where cultivation had once again started after the Singur lands were restored to the farmers following a Supreme Court order in 2016.

The order had termed the land acquisition by the then Left Front Government as illegal. The then Government had acquired 990 acres of land for the Tata Nano plant leading to a powerful movement by Mamata Banerjee in 2006 which finally catapulted her to power in 2011.

Out of the 990 acres about 955 acres were returned to the farmers after the imposing Tata Nano structure was pulled down by the State Government in the wake of the Apex Court order.

While the local farmers’ associations said a vast area of the land had been rendered uncultivable Banerjee told the Assembly that “the Government cannot force people to cultivate the land.”

Claiming that the price of the land in that area was increasing steadily which could be one reason why the farmers were leaving cultivation, Banerjee said her Government had taken all the initiatives including providing financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to the local farmers to start cultivation once again.