Nandigram protests rake Singur embers

Singur, Mar 16 (UNI) Nandigram fire spilled into Singur today as the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee supporters dislodged the fencing of land for the Tata Motors's small car unit and tried to set afire a watch tower.

Official sources said a large number of bandh supporters, who belonged to the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, tried to uproot the logs and the barbed wire, which fenced the Tata land.

They came from the Gopalnagar area and suddenly rushed towards a watchtower near Beraberi in Purba Para areas of the region and tried to set it ablaze.

However, timely intervention by police foiled their effort.

Earlier, in the morning Trinamool Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee said no matter what Tata official Ravi Kant said, the effects of Nandigarm would certainly spread across the state wherever the government would try to forcibly acquire agricultural land.

Yesterday, Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant had ruled out any plan to shift the proposed small car manufacturing unit from Singur following sustained protest by a section of local farmers.

'' We are not perturbed over any such protest and are working very hard to start the project in time by next year, '' the MD told newspersons on the sidelines of a national seminar on the growth of Indian automobile sector, organised under the banner of the Federation of Automobile Dealers' Associations(FADA) here.

Reiterating that the Rs 1500 crore project on about 998 acre of land at Singur in Hooghly district would be completed 'as per schedule', Mr Ravi Kant said in fact they were 'working very hard' to meet the deadline for starting commercial production by the ''middle of next year''.

Fencing of the 997 acre of land of Singur began in December last year and was completed in February. The land acquisition in Singur had witnessed prolonged protests from the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, including a 25-day hunger strike by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

Meanwhile, today's statewide Opposition-sponsored 12-hour bandh in protest against the killing of 14 people in police firing on Wednesday evoked total response.

UNI