New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) On his last day at office Saturday as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajnath Singh sent a letter to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee urging her not to forcibly acquire land from farmers in Chandauli for a railway freight corridor, fearing it may transform into another Singur.
In the letter sent Dec 19, to which IANS has access, Rajnath Singh warned that Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh could turn into another Singur if the raiwlays went ahead with proposed acquisition of thousands of acres of highly fertile land for a dedicated railway freight corridor.

“Even after your public announcement that no agricultural land shall be forcibly acquired for any of the projects of the railways, the local administration in Chandauli continues to serve notices to the farmers in nearly 30 villages,” Rajnath Singh said in the letter.

“Situation in these villages has turned volatile. Any forcible acquisition of land will agitate the farmers and it could lead to a Singur like situation in Chanduali,” Singh said in his letter.

Tata Motors last year shifted to Gujarat’s Sanand its Nano small car factory from the 997.11 acres acquired by the West bengal government in Singur after a sustained Trinamool Congress-led peasant agitation for return of 400 acres to farmers from whom land was ‘forcibly taken’.