Protests against Singur land acquisition, several detained

New Delhi, Dec 28 (UNI) Several organisations staged a protest rally here today to mark the 'National Day of Solidarity' for the people of Singur in West Bengal and demanded blocking of coersive acquisition of land and transparency in the Tata Motors project deal.

More than 50 people, who shouted slogans and burnt Tata Chairman Ratan Tata in effigy, were detained and later released.

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar and former Delhi court judge Justice Rajendra Sacchar were among several members of the Delhi Solidarity Group, including the AICCTU, IFTU, AIFTU, NAPM and the NTUI among others, who took part in demonstrations.

Ms Patkar said the ''undemocratic and non-transparent'' acquisition of 997-acre of multi-cropped, fertile land by ''force'' for the Tata small car project was ''atrocious and tantamounted to curbing of civil rights''.

Such acquisitions, being made ostensibly for ''public purpose'' were actually benefitting large corporate houses due to collusion between the government and the corporate sector, she alleged.

The protestors demanded that the West Bengal government hold immediate dialogue with the organisations of affected people like Singur Krishi Jamin Raksha Committee and remove fencing of the project area besides halting forced land acquisition for private purposes.

They also called upon the government to devise a rehabilitation policy for all such projects and scrap the century-old Land Acqusition Act.

Meanwhile, about a hundred odd members of 'Naujawan Bharat Sena' and 'Progressive Democratic Students' Union' demonstrated at the office of Tata Steels on the Parliament Street this morning against the ''snatching' of farmers'' land in West Bengal and Orissa.

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