Anshika Misra/DNA
 
Kolkata, Aug 26: “The Tata project has to go on in the interest of West Bengal,” Prakash Karat, CPI (M) general secretary, said on Monday. “The (West Bengal) government will sort out the problem,” Karat told reporters, rubbishing a question on whether the Centre’s intervention was required to end the agitation against the Tata Motors’ Nano plant in Singur.

Angry villagers in Singur have been protesting against the Rs1,500-crore Tata Motors’ Nano plant that will roll out the world’s cheapest car, demanding that the WB government return 400 acres of land acquired from unwilling farmers.

Briefly referring to the Singur issue in his 40-minute keynote address, Karat said 70% of the over 11,000 landowners, from who 997 acres of land was acquired in Singur, had accepted the compensation offered by the WB government. “The compensation is fair under all standards,” he insisted, adding that owners of only 300 acres had not accepted the compensation. The other 100 acres are disputed, he maintained.

“The issue has now taken the form of a political struggle on whether the project should go on,” Karat said. He added that the struggle by those dispossessed of their land in most cases if for better compensation.

“Industrialisation in the long run is inevitable and in the interests of the peasantry. Industrialisation provides for future needs in a labour-surplus country like ours,” Karat stated. But the conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural purpose like infrastructure projects has to be balanced with the need for food security which is essential for national sovereignty, he added.

Stressing the WB government’s commitment to agriculture, Karat said that over the last three years while the WB government had acquired a total of 10,207 acres of land for non-agricultural purposes it had also acquired and distributed 29,937 acres for agriculture.

Nature of present rural crisis and rural distress is a direct outcome of liberalisation and neo-liberal policies. “We have to ensure that even within capitalist framework poor peasants do not become victims of the brutal process of expropriation,” Karat said.

Speaking on the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act, Karat said, “The Act escaped the attention of most people including us. We mistook it for an export promotion vehicle and failed to see the real estate bonanza under the guise of tax sops.” But he was quick to add that certain SEZs help development, justifying those in Left-ruled states like Kerala.

Karat labelled the new Land Acquisition Bill and National Rehabilitation Bill as “unsatisfactory”. The process of working out the compensation is unfair; the definition of public purpose is too narrow; and the clause allowing private parties to acquire 70% of a project site with no responsibility of rehabilitation is unacceptable, he said.