WB bans protests against Tata Motors project

The West Bengal government today barred political parties from holding meetings or processions at Singur, the site for Tata Motors' small car project, and clamped Section 144 at the project site.

Trinamool Congress has called for a 12-hour bandh in the state on Friday, December 1, in protest against the alleged assault of Mamata Banerjee by policewomen in Singur.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee later denied that Banerjee was assaulted or manhandled as alleged by Banerjee.

According to him, the state government had laboured hard for Tata Motors to review its earlier decision to set up the prestigious small car project in Uttaranchal. "I put in a lot of labour to get Tata Motors' decision revised from Uttaranchal to Singur," he added.

The Chief Minister also assured that the land in Singur would be handed over to Tata Motors in a few days. "There will not be any delay in this," he added.

Commenting on the project, he said the Tata Motors project at Singur would be unique in terms of investment and employment generation. "It will lead to huge development. We are confident that more assets could be generated from the car production unit than from agricultural land. This is definitely a public interest project," he added.

A state government official said today in the morning that the government had barred all political parties from holding any meeting or procession at Singur, about 35 km from here.

According to officials, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee was stopped by the police at Maitypara, some distance from Kolkata, when she was going to Singur for a march to protest the proposed handing over of land to the Tatas for the car project as there was an apprehension of breach of law and order.

"A woman deputy superintendent of police and women constables stopped Banerjee from proceeding beyond Maitypara," the official said.

Trinamool Congress supporters went on rampage in different parts of Kolkata to protest the alleged assault on Banerjee.

A bus was torched in North Kolkata, while workers blocked traffic on many roads, police said. Agitating TC workers were chased away and some were taken into custody.