Singur, Oct. 20: Mamata Banerjee today scattered mustard seeds to symbolise the return of farming in Singur, a day before her scheduled meeting in New Town with industrialists.

Mamata delivered an address of triumph as farming was set to resume on a swathe of land acquired for a Tata car plant 10 years ago.

Tomorrow, Mamata will meet businessmen at Eco Park in New Town for a Vijaya Sammilani that is an annual affair, a sequence that underscores the chief minister's compulsions to strike a balance between her pet themes and the demands of governance.

At Gopalnagar in Singur today, Mamata said: "It gives me great joy that Singur is smiling again.... The movement will become an international model for land rights." In all, 2,216 farmers got documents for 103 acres.

Sources in the administration said Gopalnagar was chosen for the first lot for land return because most of the plots that were acquired in this area were untouched in the intervening 10 years and returning land from here was easier. Trinamul leaders such as Haripal MLA Becharam Manna, however, said Gopalnagar was chosen as it was the first site of acquisition for the factory in 2006.

Mamata said the government had already made 931 acres out of the total 997.11 acres arable and 10,436 farmers would get their land by November 10, 33 days before the Supreme Court set deadline of November 23.

"Singur teaches us that we should never run from a fight and that rights are not served to you on a platter. You have to snatch them," Mamata said, before scattering the mustard seeds on their plots.

Mustard, according to agriculture minister Purnendu Bose, was chosen because it is a dry season now. Mustard cultivation, he said, does not require major irrigation as slightly moist land is enough.

CPM central committee member Mohammad Salim questioned the reason for such celebration. "What was she celebrating? The decimation of the hope of Bengal's reindustrialisation? She is sending out all the wrong signals to industry, which she shouldn't if she is serious about drawing industry to the state," Salim said.

Mamata, who has visited Singapore, England and Germany to court investment and is slated to visit Thailand next month for a business meet, has been sending out bureaucratic delegations to various countries in Asia and Europe to boost participation at the Bengal Global Business Summit.

A senior functionary in a city-based trade chamber said that although many industrialists now understand the importance of Singur and Nandigram to Mamata, she can no longer afford to make mistakes on industry in her second term as chief minister.

'Impostors'

The chief minister said many of the people yet to receive the record of rights for the return of land were impostors who had taken compensation cheques 10 years ago.

When the government tried to locate these "willing" farmers, they were nowhere to be found. "These were impostors who posed as willing farmers to take the compensation. A lot of these malpractices took place back then. We are looking into these things," she said.

Unlike in her September 14 address, she did not say FIRs would be lodged against such people.