Ta ta Singur catches Mamata on wrong foot

Before the 7.20pm statement by Tata Motors, she had been hoping to prolong the issue, having agreed to talks with West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi?s non-partisan mediation. ?We want the governor to intervene and mediate,? Mamata had said, ?Discussions are under way.?

Tata Motors broadside sent her into an emergency meeting with her lieutenants at their Singur campsite.

The stunned government and administration had no comment to make?chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was in a meeting with the governor when the Tata announcement came in, left without any statement.

The government has repeatedly said that it is not possible to legally return land that has been acquired and even if it were possible, the scattered nature of the plots adding up to the 400 acres that Mamata is demanding would in effect kill the main project.

Reacting to the pull out, Ficci president, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said stoppage of work by the Tata?s and a possible pull out is obviously unfortunate and we wish that the Singur dispute between Tata?s and farmers had not reached this point.

“I believe it need not have if there had been better and more open dialogue between the investors and the local community earlier on. I hope that this does not impact the nano project timelines and we look forward to the rollout of the nano even if from another Tata plant?

Tata Motors said it is working out a detailed plan to relocate the plant and machinery to an alternative site, but also promised not to ditch the young workers from the area?s landloser families who had been trained by it as part of a comprehensive rehabilitation package.

?To minimise the impact this may have on the recently recruited and trained people from West Bengal, the company is exploring the possibility of absorbing them at its other plant locations,? it said. The company has got over 700 youths trained at industrial training institutes to improve their employability.

Reaffirming Tata group chairman Ratan Tata?s blunt public statement on August 22 that he would put the safety of its staff before considerations of a lost investment of Rs 1,500 crore at Singur, the company said employees and contract labour ?have continued to be violently obstructed from reporting to work.?

Ratan Tata had said the company did not have any Plan B, although industry sources were aware that the Tatas could shift part of the manufacture to its bases at Pune in Maharashtra and Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.

The company said its auto ancillary partners, who had begun building their plants adjoining the main factory, ?were also constrained to suspend work in line with Tata Motors’ decision.? Sources at one ancillary said they had hardly begun civil work so their loss would be nothing compared with that of the Tatas.

Tata Motors, detailing how the dharna and threats have affected attendance first of contract workers then of its own staff and even foreign experts, said, ??the existing environment of obstruction, intimidation and confrontation has begun to impact the ability of the company to convince several of its experienced managers to relocate and work in the plant.?

Work on the project, for which the government acquired 997 acres in 2006, began in January 2007 after huge controversies over the way farmland had been acquired by the state.

Despite unexpected obstacles, Tata Motors had expected the first Nano to roll out in October.