Tata Motors which has challenged the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act has requested the Calcutta high court to ask the government the amount of compensation it plans to offer to them and also to ask the time frame in which they would get the amount.

Justice I P Mukherjee while heading the hearing of the case said, the act did not tell the amount to be paid to Tata Motors as compensation for taking away the land, which was given to it for setting up a small-car factory.

The story behind the compensation was that Tata Motors bought the land from the government for their Nano project. But then, farmers started opposing the acquisition due to which Trinamool Congress ordered Tata Motors to abandon the project and shift it to Gujarat. Later, when Mamta Banerjee became state’s Chief Minister, she passed the Singur Act in order to return the land to farmers who had been reluctant to part with it.

Advocate-general Anindya Mitra, appearing for the government said when the compensation would be decided then the investment cost by the government on the development work should also be kept in mind. The government has spent Rs 137 crore for acquiring the land and another Rs76 crore for construction of roads and a drainage system along with other development works.