The ruling Left Front in West Bengal on Tuesday asked the Tatas to
reconsider their resolve to suspend work at the small car factory at
Singur saying that it was an unfortunate decision at a time when
efforts were on to find a way out of the impasse.
While state Industries Minister Nirupam Sen said it was an unfortunate
day for West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee said that the party has no
comment to make, as it was 'completely their (Tatas') internal and
technical matter'.
"We have not stopped work at the Tata project. The decision to suspend
work at the plant was Tatas' own. We have not obstructed anyone. We
cannot do anything if workers do not turn up for work," she told
reporters in Kolkata, adding that her party wanted normal work to
continue at the Nano plant.
She also said that some people were claiming that the indefinite
dharna had been undertaken after the party (Trinamool Congress) took
money. "I challenge them to prove it. If they fail to prove it they
have to apologise publicly."
Citing that there was no change in the volatile situation in Singur,
Tata Motors on Tuesday said it was looking for alternate options to
manufacture its small car Nano from the company's other plants and
work at Singur has been suspended.
"In view of the current situation, the company is evaluating alternate
options for manufacturing the Nano car at other company facilities,"
the company said it a statement.
A detailed plan to relocate the plant and machinery to an alternate
site is under preparation, it added. "Tata Motors has been constrained
to suspend the construction and commissioning work at the Nano plant
in Singur in view of continued confrontation and agitation at the
site," it said.
The decision has been taken in order to ensure the safety of its
employees and contract labour who have continued to be violently
obstructed from reporting to work, it added.
The project's auto ancillary partners were also constrained to suspend
work in line with Tata Motors' decision, it said.
Today's decision came at a meeting of the Tata Motors management
committee , a day after Ratan Tata arrived from Singapore and took
stock of the situation arising out of Mamata Banerjee's siege, sources
said.
Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata had last month threatened to exit West
Bengal if there was no let up in violence at Singur, where the company
is building a factory to make the world's cheapest car 'Nano.'
"We are deeply concerned at the violence and disruption and at the
safety of our employees, equipment and investments at the project site
at Singur," Tata told reporters on the sidelines of the Tata Tea
annual general meeting on August 22.
"If need be we will move and relocate the Nano project elsewhere. We
have made a major investment in West Bengal. To move will be at a
great cost to Tata Motors and to shareholders, but relocation will
also cost the West Bengal government. However, I will not bring my
employees here if they will be beaten up," the Tata Group chairman
said.
After Tata Motors decided to suspend work at the Singur plant, Ratan
Tata told a national televison channel that he does not want to be 'an
unwelcome guest'.
Trinamool Congress on its part claimed that the Tatas will never
leave, and added that 'they are just posturing'.
Mamata's Banerjee's party further said that their agitation was
against the state government and not Tata.
While international consultants working in the plant have returned
home, Tata Motors sources said that Singur employees will be absorbed
elsewhere.
"To minimise the impact it may have on the recently recruited and
trained people from West Bengal, the company is exploring the
possibility of absorbing them at its other plant locations," a company
statement said.
Tatas' threat comes at a time when a number of states including
Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttarakhand are
wooing them to set up the facility.
Tata Motors had evacuated its entire workforce from the Singur
facility on Thursday in the face of numerous instances of intimidation
from protesters at the site.
A section of scientists, engineers and professionals on Tuesday
expressed concern at the happenings at the Tata Motors Nano plant at
Singur, and said that it had come at a time when West Bengal was fast
becoming a favourable spot for setting up new industries and was
attracting considerable investments.
"We feel people of West Bengal will express themselves in favour of
industrialisation," they said.
"This new spate of industrialisation and associated infrastructural
growth is the dream for each and every citizen and are all poised to
welcome this positive change," a representative of the group said.
Earlier in the day, Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee met
West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who has stepped in to end
the Singur deadlock, for the third time in the past three days.
Chatterjee, the leader of the Opposition in the assembly, accompanied
by former Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi discussed the ongoing crisis
with the Governor for about an hour.
Chatterjee, however, declined to disclose any details about the
meeting.
With the Singur impasse continuing, the Governor had suggested a
neutral mediator to end the impasse, and the Left Front government
were not against this suggestion.
In a letter to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee last week,
Gandhi had said that a person with no political or industrial
affiliation be invited to act as an unbiased intermediator in the
matter.
Gandhi also requested her to suggest a name or names and said he would
request the West Bengal government to respond positively.
The TC chief had on Monday urged the Governor to take the initiative
for talks in which her party would participate as it wanted an
'immediate solution'.
She, however, underlined that the talks should be on the issue of
return of 400 acres to the 'unwilling' farmers at Singur.
Banerjee also said that work should resume at the Tata Motors Re
100,000 car plant, where there was no work for the fifth consecutive
day.
"We want that work should take place at the Tata plant, at the same
time, talks can also go on."
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