Tata drives Nano out of West Bengal

West Bengal will no longer be the home for the mother plant of the Rs 1 lakh Tata Motors Nano car after Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata told chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that the situation at the factory site at Singur was not suitable for further work owing to the agitation led by Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress (TC) and her allies.

Tata told the press, “We have taken the regretful decision to move the Nano project out of West Bengal. We have taken this with great sadness because we came here attracted by the nature of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government but faced great agitation and aggression from opposing parties led by Mamata Banerjee.”

Tata added, “We have not decided where the plant will be shifted and have offers from three-four states and wish we had found a congenial environment in West Bengal - it is inappropriate to make statement on time line for new factory today and I will announce this later."

Tata said, “The decision has been prompted today because we do not see any change on the horizon. We have a timeline to maintain and have made commitments, so we have to move."

While saying, “We have not lost enthusiasm for investments in West Bengal”, Tata repeatedly criticised Mamata Banerjee for agitations and accused her of breaching the rule of law and flouting the legal system, and her alleged statements that “she would not allow a single Nano to roll out of the plant would continue agitating, while our people were assaulted and had bombs thrown at them."

Even though he had never made any contact with the Opposition parties, he said, “The time for talking to the opposition has come and gone – we don’t have time beyond but we would in future be happy to invest in Bengal.”

Tata admitted the company had to discuss the issue of land with state government but as it had only leased the land from the government, the issue of talking to opposition parties did not arise.

“We are not party to the land dispute and we have been caught in the fight between the government and the Trinamool,” Tata said.

He added, “I say this with sincerity – Bengal is a terrific state with great potential and we came here because we thought we could make a difference. We have acted in good faith and personally had a great desire that we could be part of this part of the country."

While maintaining Bengal was still an investor friendly state, he said he could not say what would have happened if the company had bought the land directly instead of leasing it through the government.

Tata admitted that the company would have to evaluate how vendors will absorb the loss and all people who received training or were employed would be accommodated and continue to be members of the Tata Motors family.

Tata, accompanied by Tata Motors' managing director Ravi Kant and group director S Krishna Kumar, walked out of Writers Buildings after a 90 minute meeting with the chief minister and his industries minister Nirupam Sen and some select bureaucrats, all of whom failed to convince Tata that work at the factory could resume under police protection.

Work at the factory has been suspended from August 29 after workers at the factory were stopped from entering the plant by a group of agitators led by activist Anuradha Talwar and trade union leader Purnendu Bose, both Trinamool Congress allies.

The Nano was scheduled for launch in the October-December quarter. Local reports indicated extremely high tensions at Singur where many residents were most upset that the factory was moving out, more so as over 10,000 of the 12000-odd land losers had given up land for the project voluntarily.