Lathicharge and tear gas in Singur

Singur, May 21 (UNI) Altogether 12 people, including three policemen, were injured when villagers, resisting the Tatas' small car project, clashed with law keepers for a second consecutive day here today.

Police lathicharged and fired several rounds of tear gas shells as Krishi Jami Raksha Committee members showered brickbats while trying to pull down the boundary wall around the project site.

'' Police successfully pushed back the Committee activists. Three policemen were injured in brickbatting,'' Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray told reporters at the state Secretariat.

With trouble recurring in Singur, a high-level official meeting, held at the state Secretariat immediately after today's incident, reviewed the situation in the area.

The incident occurred when a few hundred activists of the Jami Raksha Committee, including a number of women, who had assembled at Bajemelia in a protest rally against yesterday's police lathicharge, suddenly ran towards the boundary wall and tried to break the police cordon along the project site, Additional Superintendent of Police Asit Pal said.

After they clashed with police, trouble spread over to the adjoining Uttar Khaser bheri and Beraberi villages.

The situation was, however, brought under control after a police reinforcement reached the area.

UNI