Katwa, West Bengal

Fifteen years ago, Subhas Chandra Ghosh was a busy farmer who cultivated paddy and vegetables at his farm in Debkunda village. Today, the 50-year-old roams around the village to kill time talking to other villagers, or sits idle at the village temple. Life has changed beyond recognition. 

The painful change has been brought about by a thermal power project that is yet to see the light of the day. And, for which, over 1,500-odd farmers, like Subhas, gave up their agricultural land in Purba Bardhaman district, 150 kilometres from state capital Kolkata.

Additionally, most villagers have lost all the compensation they received against their land. They had invested the compensation money in chit fund companies that left them in the lurch. 

As the eight-phase polls for the 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal draw closer, the 1,500-odd farmers who gave away their land and were cheated by chit fund companies feel let down by the hollow promises of development. They say they hope to give a befitting reply to politicians when the area votes on April 22.

“We gave the land expecting the thermal power station would create massive employment. We were happy. The government also promised to provide a job to at least one member of a family whose land was acquired. We thought our area would see good development,” Subhas added.

The Katwa project

The proposed Rs 8,000-crore 1,320 MW (mega watt) Katwa Thermal Power Project was conceived of by the Left government and was to be executed by the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited, the state-run power utility. 

In 2006, over 1,500 farmers across six villages — Debkunda, Ganguly Danga, Kaushik Gram, Churpuni, Rajua and Shrikhand — in Purba Bardhaman district gave up 556 acres (225 hectares) of agricultural land for the proposed power project. The total land requirement was 1,030 acres (417 hectares).  

Subhas, who owned two bighas (0.32 hectares) of land, received compensation of around Rs 3.20 lakh per bigha (0.16 hectare). 

Two years later, in 2008, the project was given to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for execution after stiff resistance from some land owners and local politicians who alleged forceful land acquisition. 

The Left government was already on the back foot after facing a similar protest in Singur over acquiring land for Tata’s Nano car project and didn’t want a repeat.

Also Read: Battle for Bengal: Scrapped Tata Nano project, Singur’s farmers and uncultivable land

The project made some progress and in 2010, the NTPC signed power purchase agreements with some states, including West Bengal, for selling power from the Katwa project. A year later, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) unseated the Left and rode to power in 2011. 

Fearing backlash over land acquisition, the project remained stalled till February 2014, when the West Bengal government allocated another 96 acres (38.8 hectares) for the proposed plant and local residents agreed to add 150 acres (60.7 hectares) to the land pool. 

More than six years later, there has been no progress, and the thermal power plant is yet to see the light of the day. 

“As it was conceived during the Left rule, the TMC showed no interest in executing the project. They focussed on petty party politics and ignored the larger good in terms of jobs and livelihood avenues,” Ranajit Ghosh, a local Left leader and former pradhan of Debkundu village, told Gaon Connection.

Twin troubles

Villagers told Gaon Connection the real tragedy began after they received the compensation for the land they gave up. Agents of chit fund companies began visiting them at home, and convinced them to invest in their companies for higher returns.

“They knew about the compensation we had received from the government. Initially, we didn’t trust them, but many were youths from our village who grew up in front of us. We believed them, and got cheated,” a broken 72-year-old farmer Panchanan Ghosh, who lost Rs five lakh, told Gaon Connection.

The villagers said the chit fund companies that took their money have left them paupers. “We do not have a single rupee left,” said Subhas, who lost Rs 5 lakh of the Rs 6.4 lakh compensation he received. 

“Most of us were too illiterate to understand the nitty-gritty of banking. We trusted the agents who told us the money would be collected from the house and the entire amount with interest would be paid to us after maturity. We were not required to go anywhere,” Panchanan said. 

The agents had promised them an interest of around Rs 1,000 a month on an investment of Rs 1 lakh.

“Putting our money in chit fund companies was our biggest mistake. The companies vanished and the agents refused to pay, saying they did not have any money. We lost both our land and our money. We are beggars now,” Panchanan said. According to him, 90 per cent of the 1,500 farmers who received compensation, invested the money in chit funds. 

And lost it all. 

Their only source of income now is work under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), which is sporadic. “We don’t always get work, and it has become almost impossible to run our families,” 66-year-old Subhas Mondal from Debkunda told Gaon Connection. He used to farm on one bigha (0.16 hectare) of land. 

Farmers are demanding their land back. 

Unlike in Singur, where the fertile land was rendered unusable by construction debris, the land in Katwa is still fertile, as construction work stopped with the boundary wall. “The guards do not allow us inside to farm, though. A land that used to yield many crops a year is lying useless. It is a loss for both us and the government. They should return our land,” said 60-year-old Bidyut Mondal, who gave two bighas (0.32 hectares) of his land.

Political rumblings

A section of the farmers blamed the souring of relations between the state government and the central government for the project’s delay. “The state and the Centre are constantly in a tussle, and we people bear the brunt of it. The project could have been a lifeline for the entire Purba Bardhaman region. This is the true picture of industrialisation in Bengal,” pointed out 50-year-old Ladon Majhi, a farmer from Debkundu village. 

“The central government is already on a selling spree. It has no interest in industrialisation and Katwa stands as an example of its wrong policies,” said Rabindranath Chatterjee, sitting TMC MLA from Katwa who is contesting the coming polls too. 

When contacted, no one from the NTPC office at Katwa wanted to speak about the matter, saying the officials concerned had already been transferred.