400 acres to be returned to Singur farmers: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the first day of her tenure said she would return the 400 acres of land of Singur farmers seized by the previous government for the Tata Motors car project.

“Tata can come and set up factory on 600 acres. We will will return the 400 acres of reluctant farmers,” she said.

She said she would stick to her commitment on Singur.

Mamata Banerjee took oath as the eleventh Chief Minister of West Bengal and gained control of Writers’ Buildings, the red-painted edifice of power in the heritage hub of Kolkata.

She said she would hold a meeting on the Gorkhaland issue immediately and then take up the case of Jungalmahal (the Maoist affected region in West Midnapore and neighbouring districts’ areas) and create development package for those areas.

She promised to have relook into the Sachar Committee recommendations on minority development and said would consult him- Justice Rajinder Sachar- on the Muslim development issue.

She said a committee will be set up with human rights activists and experts to review the cases of political prisoners and ensure that those imprisoned for political vendetta get justice.

She promised on disaster management and water storage system to fight water scarcity and irrigation problems.

She said the 150th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore would also be observed and there would be month long programmes and also festival of the Bengalis. She said with Bangladesh programmes will be held jointly.

Mamata was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor M K Narayanan on the southwest lawn of the 208-year-old the governor?s residence, the Raj Bhavan, at 1:01 pm.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram were among the many top leaders present on the occasion.