Tata Motors halts work at Singur plant as protests intensify

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It may be recalled that TMC-led farmers had been protesting since December 2006, alleging that the state government cheated poor farmers by buying their farmlands for the Tata plant at throwaway prices.

According to a TMC activist, a total of 997.11 acres was acquired by the government for the project, of which 691.66 acres belonged to farmers who gave their land willingly. However, the government had exploited the farmers using the archaic 1894 Land Acquisition Act, introduced by the British to build railways and canals, which obliges private owners to part with land required for a "public purpose." Though, in other countries like in the US, courts of law have ruled that governments cannot expropriate land for private development, yet, in India, the interpretation of the law is still unclear with Kolkata High Court judging it differently by noting that what counts as a public purpose is a "socio-economic question" that should be left to local governments to answer. And, as it would have been impossible for Tata Motors to negotiate with each of the thousands of farmers for the purpose of acquiring their farmlands, the West Bengal government had acted on behalf of the company to buy the farmlands from the farmers.

Though the state government had compensated about 13,000 farmers for acquiring the farmlands, at least 2300 of them, owners of collectively about 400 acres of farmlands had refused to part with their fertile land. However, the TMC activist said the government had forcibly evicted these farmers from their farmlands on the ground that they were not titleholders of the land and hence the protests.

Last week West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee invited TMC leader Mamata Banerjee for talks to resolve the issue even as Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors, threatened to pullout from West Bengal as he felt "unwanted."

However, Banerjee did not relent, saying that she was willing to sit across the table only if Tata vacated the farmlands first. Meanwhile, protests also intensified, leading to violent clashes between police forces and the agitating farmers that left over a dozen people seriously injured.

Fearing the safety of its 850-odd plant workers, on Friday Tata Motors ordered them to stay away from Singur while it continues to "assess the situation closely for improvement in the ground situation." Tata Motor's order came after about 10,000 protesters held a demonstration outside the Nano plant, detaining about 700-odd workers and executives inside the plant for over 3 hours on Thursday.

Similarly, Sapoorji-Pallonji, the firm entrusted with the civil construction of the plant, ordered its 150 engineers deputed at Singur to stop work as well, leading to a complete shutdown.

A Tata Motors official said a high-level meeting would take place next week to decide the fate of the Singur plant. Earlier, Ratan Tata threatened that "whatever be the cost, we will move out if the situation so demands."

Though Tata Motors had so far invested about Rs.1500 crore ($375 million) in the Singur project, yet, in case it pulled out, its losses would not amount to more than Rs.400 crore.

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