Mamata on hunger strike, Rajnath held

Tata Motors showroom attacked; project will go ahead, says Buddhadeb.

The agitation against the Tata Motors car project in Singur on the outskirts of Kolkata heated up today with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee going on an indefinite fast and BJP President Rajnath Singh backing her, even as the West Bengal government said the farmland would be handed over to the company this month.

Spurning Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's offer for talks, Mamata went on an indefinite fast today. She demanded that the fencing work at the project site, which witnessed violence on Saturday, be halted immediately and police deployment removed.

Rajnath was arrested on his way to Singur but released later at Dankuni, 25 km from the site. He later turned up to share the dais with Banerjee. He asked the state government and the Tatas to move the project from the agricultural land at Singur.

A minor Naxalite group attacked a Tata Motors showroom here today in an attempt to drag the Tatas into the Singur land acquisition issue. Glass doors were smashed at the leading Tata Motors dealership, Lexus Motors, by Revolutionary Students' Front (RSF). The promoter of Lexus, Binod Agarwal, when contacted, said, "There is a loss of around Rs 2-3 lakh due to this incident. The police are looking for the culprits."

Later in the day, Buddhadeb clarified that compensation and rehabilitation could be discussed with the Opposition parties, but the project itself would go ahead as scheduled.

The state government said that its agency, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), had completed nearly 75 per cent of the 8-km fencing required to enclose the 997 acres acquired for the Tata Motors' proposed Rs 1 lakh car plant.Around 1,300 people, mostly locals enlisted by the WBIDC, were working on putting up posts for the fencing at Singur on a daily wage basis.

In New Delhi, Congress said it associated itself with the cause of the agitating farmers but wanted the issue to be resolved through talks and not through bandhs.

Tata Motors spokesman Debasis Ray said the CM would meet political parties to sort out the matter. "We are absolutely hopeful of the plot being allotted," Ray said.

Meanwhile, the salaries and allowances of Trinamool MLAs in West Bengal would be stopped from this month till Speaker H A Halim gives a ruling on the report of the damage assessement of the November 30 vandalisation of the assembly by TC legislators.