Bikash Pakira, a resident of Joymollah village in Singur, has learnt the hard way what it means to be a pawn in the game of politics. For 27 months, he underwent a technical training course, earning himself the designation ?Team Member of Tata Motors? (TTM). Pakira now works as a daily wage earner in a chemicals factory.
Pakira was an apprentice in batch number one of the Tata Motors? skill training programme. His batch had a team of 101 youths from Singur and all of them were given appointment letters in which they signed a declaration? ?I accept the above appointment as TTM in your company on the terms and conditions mentioned above.? Bikash signed the agreement on January 15, 2008.
At the end of 2009, almost a year after the Tatas had pulled out of Singur because of a protracted agitation and blockade of the company?s factory, changes were incorporated in the appointment letter. The word TTM was struck down with ink. It did not require much for Pakira to understand the message.
?I do not have any future now and all my hopes are lost. There are days when my six-member family starves as I find it difficult to feed them two square meals everyday. We have lost everything. Joining the company with the original letters of appointment mentioning us as TTM would have meant a permanent job?, says Bikash.
?We had a little mud house before the Tata Motors venture began in Singur. We had willingly given away our land for the factory. We took the compensation offered by the government and built a small house with the money. Our need for shelter was almost taken care of and a job was on the cards. But once the Tatas pulled out we have not been able to complete the construction of the roof of the new house?, he rues.
Like Bikash, almost 600 young men of Singur were promised jobs in the Tata small car factory after they underwent technical training. Almost a year on, they still await the company?s call.
A ray of hope appeared in mid-2009 after the ?0?-batch of the training module of Tata Motors (?0?-batch was the first batch consisting of 14-odd youths from Singur) was called to Sanand in Gujarat.
Gautam Ghosh, member of the ?0?-batch, is all set to return to his native village from Sanand. Gautam?s family is depressed, as they struggled extremely hard for the past two years when Gautam was being trained by the company. Everyone was upbeat that their days of hardship would soon be over. That hope has died.
Madan Mohan Ghosh, Gautam?s 80-year-old father, says, ?For the last eight months, Gautam has been working in Tata Motor?s plant in Sanand. He earns around Rs 6,000. But he spent more than Rs 3,000 for his accommodation, food and water. He is not able to send us more than Rs 3,000. This money he can earn in Singur, working as a daily wage labourer or a security guard. We had given land in the project and now we are completely bankrupt, ? he says..
A visit to Singur reveals how the abandoned project has spelt doom for everyone?the ?unwilling farmers? as well as the ?willing farmers.?
A little over 2,000 families of unwilling farmers whose land was acquired by the government and handed over to the Tatas, refused to accept the compensation cheques. One of them, Gobinda Manna, 75-year-old with eight bighas of land, was an affluent farmer. His land fell in the project site, the government offered him Rs 24 lakh as per the compensation package, but now close to starving, he still refuses to take the money.
According to locals, Manna sold his house to survive the hardship and now lives in a mud hut. ?I will die but will never accept the money. I have full faith in Didimoni (Mamata Banerjee). She will bring my land back next year?, he says.