In a new twist to the controversy surrounding the 997-acre plot for the Rs 1 lakh car plant of Tata Motors at Singur, 40km west of Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress (TC) controlled gram panchayat in the area said it would not grant any permissions to the plant like environmental and water use licences, and also threatened to take action against the company as its factory was blocking the rainwater drainage channel of the entire area leading onto the Hooghly river.
“The factory is blocking the age-old water drainage routes of the area like the Julkia and Kana channels and villages outside the site are getting flooded- if necessary the panchayat will go into the factory site and excavate and deepen the channel to their original width and depth as they appear to have been blocked”, warned Singur panchayat leader, Becharam Manna of TC.
Manna was on the right track, as a similar project was being executed by the West Bengal government, which had promised Tata Motors to deepen and excavate the channels after the site was flooded in September 2008.
Because of the flooding, the company on its part had to raise the plinth level of the entire factory by more than 1 metre to prevent flooding in the future.
The situation further escalated in the evening after Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata reached Kolkata ahead of the Tata Tea annual general meeting in the city on August 22.
Tata was holed up in the Taj Bengal hotel where he met a series of visitors through the day, including the West Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen at around 910pm and left the hotel only at 1050pm.
“Tata has no intention of pulling out of Singur unless forced to do so. I have tried to assure him and Trinamul has also promised him it would stage a peaceful agitation and there would be no lawlessness on August 24”, Sen said after the meeting.
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“Tata is very worried and expressed anxiety about that would happen, for he did not anticipate this and expected the project would be welcomed in West Bengal”, Sen added.
Earlier in the day, TC chief Mamata Banerjee said she would go ahead with the indefinite dharna near the Tata Motors' small car plant from August 24 but was open to dialogue.
She claimed her party had already offered to the state government a solution for return of the 400 acres at Singur to 'unwilling' farmers.
Banerjee offered, “Let the company take whatever land it wants for its 600 acre factory and only after that will the farmers who have not accepted compensation take back their land- I am not insisting on return of the exact land”.
Saying that she was not against any compromise, she added, “I am not against the company- the government must accept in principle the return of land to unwilling farmers and I will show it how and where”.
Banerjee confirmed that the Trinamool-run Singur panchayat samity had decided not to extend any facility to the Tata Motors plant.
After denying through the day that he was going to meet Ratan Tata, state industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen also turned up at Tata’s hotel in the evening.
Asked if there was any scope for her meeting Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata during his visit to the city tomorrow, Banerjee replied, "I am not an employee of the Tata company."
She said the government would have to take a policy decision on return of the 400 acre at Singur to unwilling farmers.
Tata Motors had written a “confidential” letter to Banerjee on the Nano small car project in Singur saying it needed only 600 acres for its car plant, while the other 400-odd acres at Singur would house auto component companies which would supply to the Nano project and also to other clients.
According to the government, this had emboldened Banerjee to ask for return of 400 acres.
To combat this, the state government today produced a letter by Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant giving an “update” to West Bengal industry minister Nirupam Sen reportedly saying that it needed the full 997 acres now.
"We came to know about a letter written to Banerjee on August 19. Tata Motors has not given a copy of the letter to Nirupam Sen, but it has given an update on it," industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen said.
Talks between the West Bengal Government and the Trinamool Congress on the Singur land issue had ended inconclusively on August 20.
She said "we hope that the government will show goodwill which was not found in yesterday's talks".
She said "we will march to Singur, sit on roads and agitate till a solution to the problem of returning 400 acre to unwilling farmers is found."
Banerjee said she was apprehensive of trouble from ruling CPI(M) as also the state government on the day.