West
Bengal Government acquired the 997.11 acres of land for the purpose of
giving it to Tata Motors for setting up a small car plant in Singur
Block of Hoogly district. Subsequent incidences caused by people
protests, police action, fasting by political bigwigs made headlines
all over India and even beyond. While the acquired area has been fenced
in and is still under heavy police protection and there has been
protest forays into the acquired area by the affected villagers, brisk
construction work to house factory and related services is going on.
One important issue, which is yet to die down, is real farming
practices, crop diversity and productivity of the acquired land. On the
one hand, quite a large number of cultivators are hoping to get back
their land through political agitation and court cases and refused to
accept compensation money so far. On the other, the Communist Party of
India (Marxists), CPM, tried to draw comforts from any reports that
described the acquired areas poor in crop production. According to the
documents submitted to the delegates to the Hoogly district CPM
conference in December 2007, acquired area had been described as single
crop producing (Dainik Statesman 14 December 2007). But the state Chief
Minister was reported to have retraced his earlier statement that the
area was single crop producing. Government officials of the Agriculture
Directorate did not come so far openly on the crop production of the
acquired area. However land revenue department officials were more
confident in drawing from past records in grading most part of the
tract as ‘saali’ (inferior to ‘sona’) in fixing price for the land
acquired.
Objective of household survey
There were
contradictory statements from different quarters, not without
interests- political and otherwise, around the single most important
issue of how intensive agriculture is in the Singur block in general
and was in particular on the parcels of lands which were taken over by
the Government for the Tata car project. The affected farmers can
provide the best answer to the issue of intensity of agricultural
practices themselves.
It is therefore imperative that an
independent survey following all the rigorous household survey
methodology, as far as possible, primarily on crop production and
practices is conducted.
Tata Car Project area
Singur is in Hooghly
district, 45 kilometers from Kolkata. The nearest railway stations are
Singur, Kamarkundu and Madhusudanpur.The farmland earmarked for the
project stands alongside an arc of the Durgapur expressway near the
Ratanpur crossing with NH1. The six mouzas whose land falls under the
Tata project site are Gopal Nagar, Bera Beri, Bajemelia, Khaserbheri,
Singher Beri and Joymollar Beri. They stand on the other side of the
project site completing the expressway's arc into a circle.
According
to the Status Report circulated by the CPM Delhi State Secretary P S
Grewal on Singur, the acreage falling within the tract acquired by the
West Bengal government for the Tata project are:
Mouza Land (in acres)
Gopalnagar 399
Beraberi 327.21
Bajemelia 47.77
Khaserbheri 180
Singher Beri 41.47
Survey households
Survey
was conducted during June-July 2007 among households having cultivable
own/lease in plots taken over by the government in Beraberi Mouza and
residing in Purba Beraberi hamlet. Ninety one cultivating households,
including five cultivating ones without own cultivable land were
covered. Information on crop production during one crop year preceding
land take over i.e. during the period from 1.5.2005 to 30 April 2006
was collected from survey households.Non crop information related to
the survey day i.e during the period June -July 2007. All the survey
households were hopping to get back their land through political
agitation and court cases and refused to accept compensation money so
far.
Survey information
Structured questionnaire were used to collect following information from the survey households:
1. Family Size
2. Gender distribution
3. Primary occupation
4. Education achievements
5. Nature of residential place
6. Size of homestead land
7. Animals and pets maintained
8. Own cultivable land within and outside acquired area
9.
Gross land leased in/leased out crop wise during one year preceding
land take over i.e. during the period from 1.5.2005 to 30 April 2006
10. Cultivated land under different crops during the period from 1.5.2005 to 30 April 2006
11. Production of main crop and by products during the period from 1.5.2005 to 30 April 2006
12.
Crops grown in conjunction with main crops in different seasons( inter
cropping), their production and by products during the period from
1.5.2005 to 30 April 2006
Brief Survey results:
This Internet version incorporates
1. Household wise list of net cultivable area within
and outside the land acquired for Tata project and gross cultivated
area within the acquired area during the period from 1May 2005 to 30
April 2006 (Table I)
2. Size of net cultivated area per household prior to and after Tata land take over (Diagram I)
3. Number of households without own cultivated area prior to and after Tata land take over (Diagram II)
4.
Proportionate area of major crops to gross cropped area within the
acquired area during the period from 1 May 2005 to 30 April 2006
(Diagram III)
5. Productivity of major crops within the acquired area during the period from 1May 2005 to 30 April 2006 (Table II)
6.
Multiple cropping index (Diagram IV, V, VI) for different categories of
of cultivator household according to land leasing
status.