While the focus has been on the TC agitation at Singur, several local groups have emerged in opposition to her.
Some of the groups have been partially motivated by loss of livelihood caused by her agitation while others are political groups worsted by her party at the last panchayat or state assembly elections.
Spearheading the opposition to her are the 20odd groups of suppliers (called syndicates in local parlance) who have been supplying consumables like stone chips, sand mined from river beds, fly ash procured from thermal power plants or steel rebars used in construction and civil works.
Backing up all these syndicates supplying materials are similar syndicates owning commercial vehjicles like trucks and smaller cargo vehicles ranging from three-wheelers to light and medium commercial vehicles.
The syndicates were earlier politically neutral, said government sources in Singur.
However, if TC sources are to be believed, across most areas of West Bengal, such supply syndicates were controlled by the CPI(M) because of the administrative support that such businesses need. These syndicates had to come out openly against the movement because of the loss of business. While their names did not appear, the groups of people demanding the resumption of work at the plant were backed by these syndicates, admitted sources in Singur.
However, to honour the promise made to governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi to avoid any political action while talks were on at the Raj Bhavan, the anti-TC groups did not show any party flags, but used yellow placards as that coulour was not used by any political entity in the state, said sources.
The civil works contractor at the site is Shapoorji Pallonji. “We have lost our entire business because supplies have stopped,”, said Bijoy Sapui from one such syndicate.
The groups were made up of small entrepreneurs or local families who had sold part of their land to the 997 acre factory plot and therefore had some money to invest in a business, be it in warehouses or godowns to store their wares for supply when needed or on vehicles to transport them, Sapui added.
The volume of supplies had gone up sharply since October of 2007, because massive flooding of the site had necessitated a raising of the 667 acres on which Tata Motors was building the mother plant.
Vendors which had started work at the site also required landfill and this came from the syndicates, added arun Chatterjee, who runs a shop in Singur and has cashed in on the project work.
