Mamata terms SC verdict on Singur as ‘landmark victory’

Kolkata, Aug 31(PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee today described as "landmark victory" the SupremeCourt judgement on Singur land acquisition by the erstwhileLeft Front government for the Nano car plant even as TataMotors said it would study the judgement before commenting onit. An elated Banerjee told reporters at the statesecretariat that the "The Supreme Court judgement on Singur isa landmark victory. We have waited 10 years for thisjudgement. I can die peacefully, I am so happy (with theverdict.)" Banerjee, who steered political opposition against theland acquisition process forcing the Tatas to abandon theproject in 2008, said her government would shortly work out ona mechanism to return land to the farmers as directed by thecourt. "We will hold strategy meeting tomorrow as to how toimplement SC verdict", she said. The division bench of justices Arun Mishra andV Gopala Gowda of the apex court ruled that the landacquisition process in Singur was faulty and not for publicpurpose. It directed that land be returned to the farmerswithin 12 weeks. Banerjee said, "From the beginning, we had beentelling that the method of the acquisition was unethical andland was taken away forcibly from the farmers." She said she had staged a hunger strike in the citywhich lasted for 26 days to protest against the acquisitionprocess. She said that the genesis of her party TrinamoolCongress’ slogan ‘Maa-Maati-Manush’ (mother-land-people) wasfrom the Singur movement, she said adding that "It was notonly a blunder but historical suicide by the LF government". Tata Motors said it would study the Supreme Courtjudgement on Singur in detail before commenting on it. "This case in which the judgement was delivered todayrelated to the acquisition of land by the state government(read West Bengal government) before it was leased to TataMotors," the company said in a statement. It further said "Our case relating to the Singur Act of2011 is yet to be heard by Supreme Court. We will studytoday’s judgement in detail before commenting further on thesame." more PTI dc AKB AMR SUN KKRG