How much land was acquired, and from whom?

The majority of plots acquired were non-negligible in size, compared to the average in
Singur.
Most of the land was acquired from marginal landowners, and from those engaged in
cultivation on the acquired plots.
For most affected owners, more than half the land they owned in 2005 was acquired.
Did the government offer compensations at the market value of the lands
acquired?
While this was true on average, a significant fraction of landowners were undercompensated owing to misclassification of their plots assali(single-cropped low land
that does not receive assured irrigation from state canals) rather thansona(multicropped land receiving assured irrigation) in the official land records, besides inability of
the latter to incorporate other sources of plot heterogeneity.
What explains decisions of owners to accept the offered compensations?
Owners with under-compensated types of plot were significantly more likely to reject the
compensation offer.
Those whose livelihoods were more tied up with cultivation and those with possible
speculative motives (absentee landlords or those who purchased the plots rather than
inheriting them) were more inclined to reject.

What was the impact of the acquisition on incomes and assets of those
affected?
Acquisition of land resulted in 40 per cent lower income growth for owners and half
that for tenants. Consumer durables grew more slowly for undercompensated
affected owners, compared to others in the same village.
Agricultural workers that were directly affected experienced significant reductions
in employment earnings compared with unaffected agricultural workers, who in
turn, experienced smaller earnings growth compared with non-agricultural workers.
Hence, land acquisition in Singur imposed significant economic hardships on a
large fraction of affected owners, tenants and workers. A large fraction of owners
were undercompensated relative to market values. Tenants were
undercompensated and agricultural workers were not compensated at all.
An obvious implication for future land acquisition policy is the need to base
compensation on better measures of land values than is permitted by official land
records. Getting the soil grade right will reduce the incidence of undercompensation, chances of rejection and subsequent protest significantly. Displaced
tenants and workers who constitute the poorer sections of these rural communities
also need to be compensated in some way to avoid undesirable adverse impacts
on their livelihoods, as well as to minimise any political fallout.

 Violations of rights at Singur

On 30 November 2006, prohibitory orders under section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code were
clamped to prevent the farmers from resisting forcible and illegal acquisition of their agricultural
lands. The Singur area turned into a battlefield since 7 November 2006, when the West Bengal
government started deploying huge contingents of armed police and the Rapid Action Force and
setting up camps at several places in the area. Plainclothes police informers have been openly
moving around in the villages gathering information about resistance plans. Armed policemen have
been posted in the village squares and the markets to keep watch on the villagers movements.
At about 10 am on 2 December 2006, about 500 local farmers from Beraberi, Bajemalia, Purba
Gopal Nagar, Khasher Bheri, Dobandhi, Gopal Nagar villages tried to resist the barbed wire fencing
of the 997 acres of fertile and prime agricultural land acquired for the TATA Motors. The police
resorted to indiscriminate lathicharge, used rubber bullets and shelled tear gas on the villagers,
majority of whom comprised of women and children. A large number of villagers were injured,
some of them critically and are undergoing treatment.
A fact finding team of the Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) after investigation
reported that Mr. Dilip Das (44 years), Mr. Mrityunjoy Patra (52 years), Mr. Tapan Batabyal (53
years) and Mr. Bilas Sarkar (26 years) had to be admitted to Chinsura District Hospital with multiple
serious injuries they received in police beatings. The female arrestees at Chandannagar police
station alleged that they were manhandled, beaten, molested and sexually abused by the male
policemen at the time of arrest and while being transported to the police station. They also alleged
that on asking for drinking water at Chandannagar police station, they were given dirty water
totally unfit for drinking.

The Political Support

The unwilling farmers were given political support by West Bengal's opposition
leaderMamata Banerjee. Banerjee's "Save Farmland" movement was supported by
environmental activists like Medha Patkar, Anuradha Talwar andArundhuti Roy. Banerjee's
movement against displacement of farmers was also supported by several Kolkata based
intellectuals like Aparna Sen, Kaushik Sen, Shaonli Mitra and Suvaprasanna. Leftist
activists also shared the platform with Banerjee's Trinamool Party.
On September 25, 2006 Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, alongwith Singur MLA
Rabindranath Bhattacharya, was assaulted and arrested by the police from the Singur BDO
office.
The police forcibly took out the duo from the local Singur BDO office area where a few
hundred unwilling farmers were staging a peaceful protest against the land acquisition
drive by the then Left Front government for the Tata Motors' small car factory. As many as
78 villagers, including 27 women, were arrested that night.
The brutal rape and murder ofTapasi Malik, the 18 year old girl who was a highly
motivated member of the Save Farmland Committee spearheading the struggle against
land acquisition in Singur on Dec 18 2006 sent shockwaves throughout Bengal.
Two CPI-M activists, Mr Suhrid Dutta and Mr Debu Malik were arrested in connection with
the Tapasi Malik murder case.
Trinamool issued a 48-hour Bangla bandh to protest the murder.