‘We’d move, whatever the cost, to protect our people’

Posted: 2008-08-23 23:40:44+05:30 IST
Updated: Aug 23, 2008 at 2340 hrs IST

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Excerpts from Ratan Tata’s press conference on the sidelines of the Tata Tea annual general meeting in Kolkata on Friday:

Mamata Banerjee has been demanding the return of 400 acres to farmers. What Tata group’s take on it?

When Tata Group came to West Bengal there was a very little development and investment in the state. Despite great apprehensions about we making the investment, Tata Motors decided to locate one of their prime and unique factories in West Bengal. This part of the country, inspite of being a centre of heavy engineering in the past, has always been ignored industrially. We thus decided to locate the small car factory in Kolkata and hoped for setting up to showcase the new industrialisation of West Bengal. We leased the property offered to us that had already been acquired. We were looking forward to a unique product at a very low cost and wanted it to be a consolidated car company with its ancillary suppliers incorporated in the same location since logistic and transport cost are a major part of the component cost of any plant. We are trying to produce a car never been tried anywhere in world and the kind of price. It will be a tribute to the young engineers if we achieve that. What has concerned us is the violence. The destructions have let us to be concerned about the safety of our employees, equipment and the viability of the process. We do not want to come to an area where we perceive we are unwanted. We have not come here to exploit any segment and are deeply concerned about the people of West Bengal. If, in fact, anybody has a history of dealing with serving the people of around their plants, I think we have displayed that kind of sensitivity. It is for the people of West Bengal to decide whether we are going to be an unwanted resident or a good corporate citizen of West Bengal. If it is the latter we will be very happy to be part of this development. If, on the other hand, there were a view that for various political reasons we should not be here or what we are trying to do should be altered, which cannot be, we would necessarily face an issue, very reluctantly, where we need to move. If anybody is under the impression that because we have...