TMC MINISTER HECKLED BY ‘LAND LOSERS’ IN SINGUR

SINGUR/KOLKATA: Singur is simmering with discontent again. This time, however, the ire is targeted at Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

Just ahead of the chief minister’s Friday visit, West Bengal’s new minister of state for agriculture Becharam Manna faced angry protests on Wednesday.

“We want money for the land taken from us for the Nano factory. We have waited for one and a half years...We are now left begging,” said a villager.

The ‘land losers’ of Singur said they would not have joined the agitation against the Tata Nano project had they known they would be left to their fate.

Manna, a prominent face in the anti-Nano agitation, was in Singur to oversee the distribution of the rice coupons given by the state government.

Villagers complained that they did not receive the promised rice for months and suspected that the whole exercise was to keep them in good humour prior to Banerjee’s visit.

“Where was rice distribution all these months? One kg of rice is shared by six-seven people in our family. We never have full meals for a day. The leaders on the other hand have ensured money, jobs and food for their families,” alleged a villager.

The discomfort of the TMC was compounded when the local MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya alleged that Manna used to frequent the house of a businessman close to the Tatas.

Bhattacharya, perceived as an honest and upright man, fell out with the CM after he was given a short shrift in the recent reshuffle.