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No bill from Tatas for Singur so far, says West Bengal

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Monday said no compensation bill has been received for returning the 1,100 acres that was leased out to Tata Motors in Singur for setting up the mother plant for the Nano project. It also said land taken for a specific purpose by a lessee could not be blocked if the assigned project does not fructify.

It may be mentioned that Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata had said at a press conference in the city on September 1, 2009, that the group did not wish to sit on the Singur land, which was leased out by the West Bengal government, and block the State’s development. Speaking with the State Industry Minister Nirupam Sen sitting beside him, Mr. Tata said the Tatas were willing to hand back the land, if compensation was received for its investments made there. He also indicated an openness to consider an alternative project if it made business sense to the group.

State chief secretary Ashoke Mohan Chakraborty told journalists at the secretariat that the government has not received any formal proposal from the Railways for setting up a project at Singur and the State government too has not held any talks on alternative use for this land. “It is premature to say who will do what at Singur,” he said. On the compensation issue he said: “No compensation bill has been received by the government as per my knowledge.”

Asked whether he held any talks with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), whose senior executives had recently visited the site at Singur, Mr. Chakraborty said, “There is no reason to believe that only BHEL was discussed. The Union Department of Heavy Industries has offered the State government around 300 acres of land which is presently lying unutilised at Durgapur.” He said this land belongs to a DHI-controlled closed company for which the Centre has no revival plans.

Mr. Chakraborty said BHEL, which plans to set up two power plants, has been checking out sites and had also come to West Bengal on this mission. This was a follow-up visit to an earlier meeting with state government officials.

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