The head of India's West Bengal state invited opposition leaders on Monday for talks in a fresh bid to end protests against a plant building the world's cheapest car. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee issued the invitation in a letter to opposition Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee who launched an "indefinite" protest Sunday at the Tata Motors plant.
"I've sent a letter to Mamata Banerjee asking her to end the protests and I hope we will be able to resolve the issue through talks," Bhattacharjee, whose Marxist government wooed the project, told reporters in the state capital.
The call for talks came after Ratan Tata, chairman of the conglomerate which owns the plant, warned he would move it out of the state if protests continued, even though his company has invested 350 million dollars in the project.
Demonstrators blocked roads near the factory at Singur, 35 kilometres (20 miles) north-west of Kolkata for a second day as riot police protected the factory premises. Police estimated the number of protesters at 2,000, far below the 40,000 who turned out Sunday when the Trinamool Congress launched its demonstration against the factory constructing the 2,500-dollar Nano car.
Activists at Singur said they would only call off the protests if the government returned 400 acres (160 hectares) taken from farmers who have not accepted any compensation.
"Our door is open for discussion but the government must return the land," said Partha Chatterjee, a senior Trinamool Congress leader. The party had received Bhattacharjee's letter "and we're considering matters," he added. The government acquired 997 acres of land for the project but activists insist the project needs only about 600 acres.
The gates of the factory have been heavily fortified, with an October deadline for the first Nano car to roll off the assembly line appearing under grave threat. K.N. Kammkar, a police inspector on duty, said, "We are spending sleepless nights to guard the plant."
The Trinamool chief has proposed that low-lying land near the plant could be given to Tata for ancillary production units rather than the fields that the farmers want back.
Comments
Comments are closed.