The Supreme Court on Wednesday called the land acquisition in Singur for the Tata-Nano project a “farce” and rebuked the then Left government for ‘rushing’ through the exercise and violating the prescribed procedure.
The bench of Justices Gopal Gowda and Arun Misra was surprised to know that the then state government had not carried out any survey before acquiring and allotting the land to Tata.
The government had also failed to forward any proposal to the West Bengal Development Corporation (WBIDC).
“How will you (Tata) conduct the survey for locating the site? There must be a project and the survey should be conducted by the district collector. The collector must exercise his power independently. The collector must apply his mind independently”, Justice Gowda said while hearing petitions challenging the acquisition by the erstwhile Left government. Tata has also filed an appeal against the Mamata government’s 2011 legislation in which it reclaimed the land.