Tata Group has no plans to leave West Bengal: Cyrus Mistry
15 Jul 2013
Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry has ruled out any transfer of rights over the property the group owns in Singur despite the Mamata Banerjee ministry's opposition to the company holding on to the land.
The Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress was voted to power in West Bengal after the party succeeded in forcing out the Tata group from the proposed project site of Tata Motor's `Nano'' car project.
Tata Motors subsequently shifted the project out of West Bengal to Gujarat.
With the project shifted out of the state, Mamata Banerjee wanted the Tata Group to surrender the land acquired from local farmers.
The Tata Group, on the other hand, iterated its commitment to West Bengal, saying it would never leave the state.
Mistry's statement comes at a time when Singur is voting in the panchayat polls.
"We have never left West Bengal and we will never leave," Mistry said during the 15th annual general meeting of Tata Global Beverages in Kolkata.
Tata Motors had to shift the Nano project to Sanand in Gujarat on 3 October 2008, following intense protests against acquisition of farmlands. The Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee had then demanded that the Left Front government return 400 acres it had allegedly taken "by using force" from farmers unwilling to part with their lands.
Trinamool wrested power from the Left Front riding on the farmers' response to the Singur protests, propelling Mamata Banerjee to power in the 2011 polls.
The abandoned factory still stands there, but the farmers are yet to get back their lands due to litigation.
The Trinamool government passed the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, and acquired the land. But the Tata Group moved the court.
A single bench of the Calcutta High Court had ruled that the Act was valid, while a division bench declared it unconstitutional and void.
Tata Motors had since moved the case to the Supreme Court, which recently suggested that Tatas may return the land to the state government.