No work at Tata's Singur unit for second day

Singur/Kolkata, Aug 30(UNI) Work at the Tata Motors' Nano car project remained suspended for the second day today as the situation following an indefinite dharna by the Trinamool Congress showed no sign of improvement.

Stating that the condition was still not conducive for work, Tata Motors authorities said they continued to assess the situation.

''There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far.

Hence, the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today. We continue to assess the situation closely,'' a company spokesperson said.

A day after Tata Motors; employees and officers remained holed up inside the project site for hours following a picketing by agitators in front of the main gate, the company suspended work indefinitely from yesterday.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee started the dharna on August 24 with her followers demanding that 400 acres of the 997 acres of land of the project site be returned to farmers from whom it was 'forcibly' acquired.

With the political turmoil over land acquisition threatening the world's cheapest car project, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata had sounded a pull out threat last week saying he would be forced to do so if the violence and disruption of work continued.

After Calcutta High Court directed the National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) to ensure free movement of traffic on the highways with the help of state police, Hooghly District Magistrate Neelam Meena and SP(Hooghly) Rajiv Mishra went with the order yesterday at Singur to request the Trinamool leaders to allow traffic movement along one of the flanks on the National Highway Two.

Thousands of vehicles carrying goods got stranded on Delhi Road, which was the only alternative to the arterial road connecting Kolkata to Burdwan, Birbhum and Bankura districts.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the dharna mancha, crossing the highways, a temporary 30-feet tent is being set up by the Trinamool workers to shelter the people gathering here.

Today is the seventh day of the indefinite dharna staged here by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee here.

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