By IANS,
Kolkata : Security arrangements around Tata Motors’ Nano project site at Singur have been strengthened ahead of an indefinite agitation against the project from Sunday. Group chairman Ratan Tata has said the plant would be shifted out of West Bengal if the security of employees could not be assured.
“Adequate security measures have been taken for the agitation starting tomorrow (Sunday). A few policemen will travel tonight and the rest tomorrow morning,” inspector general of police (law and order) Raj Kanojia told IANS here Saturday. Singur is around 40 km from here.
Tata Motors is building a plant at Singur to make Nano, a small car that the company has declared will be the world’s cheapest car at Rs.100,000 ($2,500).
The indefinite agitation has been called by the principal opposition party in the state Trinamool Congress to demand that land taken for the project from what the party calls “unwilling” farmers be returned to the original owners.
The agitation will be launched by a farmers’ organisation, Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (KJJRC), a wing of the Trinamool Congress.
The KJJRC has threatened to lay siege to the factory site till 400 of the 997 acres acquired for the project is returned to the original owners.
The land was acquired about two years back by the state’s ruling Left Front coalition government.
The Tatas say the land is needed to set up factories by component vendors. They say vendors must be located within the project site to keep costs down.
The Trinamool Congress, however, says the land should be returned and vendors should be asked to set up their factories elsewhere.
“The opposition party has assured us before that there will not be any untoward situation during the agitation,” Shyamal Chakraborty, a senior leader of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said Saturday.
“We are going ahead with our indefinite agitation and we want it to be peaceful but if something goes out of gear it’s the state government’s responsibility,” said Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chakroborty.
Chakroborty is the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly.