The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government may consider giving agricultural land to some of the small and marginal farmers who have lost their holdings to make way for the Tata small car factory in Singur.

The state is mulling this proposal to rehabilitate those who don't have the required skill to switch to other profession. The government has already identified 37 acres of vested land in Singur block for this.

Under the existing law, the state government can distribute a maximum of three bighas of land to each farmer, said land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah. Local CPM leader Dibakar Das welcomed the government proposal.

Land-losers who have refused to give consent till date, will be given a month's notice to sign the agreement, failing which the government will deposit the land price with the receiver appointed by the high court, as provided under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Land reforms commissioner P K Agarwal took the decision in a meeting with the district administration on Wednesday. "Officials will approach the bargadars first and then the landowners. If they don't agree to sign the consent agreement, the government will deposit the money with the high court," a land official said.

On Thursday, Asma Begum, CPM panchayat member from Beraberi, donated her five acres of land at Jompukur to set up a new crematorium and a primary school. The existing crematorium has come within the factory site, though the Land Acquisition Act says the government should avoid homestead lands, crematoriums, graveyards, schools, colleges and places of worship while acquiring land.

The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) has shortlisted 170 unrecorded bargadars from the applications they made to the government. The unrecorded bargadars have been asked to produce documentary evidence to prove their identity.