Singur villagers heckle Tata official

Kolkata, Jan 15 (UNI) Demonstrating against land acquisition for the small car project, villagers of Singur heckled Tata Motors and state government officials on their visit to this area today.

Police said about 100 villagers, under the banner of 'Singur Krishi Jami Raksha Committee', stopped the vehicle carrying senior Tata Motors official S B Suryabansi and two others at Sanapara More under Gopal Nagar police station while they were on their way back after a meeting with the local gram panchayat.

Led by Trinamool Congress leader Becharam Manna and NPMO activists Anuradha Talwar, a close associate of Ms Medha Patkar, the demonstrators shouted slogans and tried to drag the officials out of the vehicle. However, they remained unhurt with the doors of the car being locked from inside, police said.

West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) official Apurba Banerjee and another Government officials, accompanying Mr Suryabansi, were inside the car, police said.

A small group of policemen, escorting the team was outnumbered by the demonstrators. One of the woman agitators even thrashed a policeman. However, soon a large police force arrived at the scene and escorted the officials safely out of the area.

This was the second time the Tata officials faced demonstration in the area. Earlier, last year they encoutered hostile villagers while visiting the site for the proposed project.

The officials today visited Gopal Nagar to hold talks with the panchayat members over their proposed visit to Jamshedpur to gather first hand experience about the comprehensive development scheme the Tatas proposed to take up in Singur for the local people.

However, the gram panchayat members belonging to the Trinamool Congress had decided to boycott the Jamshedpur visit in protest against the 'unilateral' move of the Government in going ahead with the small car project, party sources said.

Meanwhile, movement of vehicular traffic went out of gear in the city following a one-hour rasta roko by Trinamool Trade Union Congress acvitists as part of its programme to continue the movement on the Singur issue.

With Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee still in-nursing home, the party has decided to undertake a ''Singur chalo'' programme tomorrow and march to Nandigram on January 20.

UNI