NGOs, activists to protest Tatas' Rs 1-lakh car

9TH AUTO EXPO 2008

car, at the Auto Expo and an array of NGOs and activists from Singur, West Bengal, and other parts have lined up in Delhi for a not-so-grand reception with pamphlets and protests.

The protests are meant to highlight the plight of the hundreds of sharecroppers of Singur besides the 12,000 landowners whose land was acquired by the Bengal government for the Tata factory which is to make the small car.

NGOs have contended that the company has been given land in Singur, about an hour's drive from Kolkata, almost free to make the car.

Among the prominent activists to attend the protests are Medha Patkar and Anuradha Talwar, who heads the Paschim Bangal Khet Majdoor Samiti (PBKMS).

Several villagers from Singur who gave their land for the Tata car factory and activists from the New Trade Union Initiative (the mother organisation of the PBKMS), the National Alliance of People's Movement and the Delhi Forum for Solidarity will also attend.

Talwar, who has been spearheading protests against the alleged dispossession of hundreds of sharecroppers, said the car has been "painted with the blood of the people of Singur".

It is not clear whether the activists will actually protest inside the Auto Expo venue at Pragati Maidan.

M V Vijayan, who is organising programmes to last till the end of the Expo on behalf of the Delhi Solidarity Forum, said, "We will be addressing the media tomorrow and we have a day-long demonstration at Jantar Mantar the day after."

Activists will also be meeting political leaders of the CPI (M) and ministers in the central government to push the cause of the villagers of Singur.