Singur to start satyagraha against Nano exit

Kolkata: People in West Bengal's Singur along with syndicate members who supplied materials for building the plant for the world's most inexpensive car Nano, will start a 'satyagraha' (sit-in) movement near the factory site from Friday, a syndicate member said on Thursday.

"We are part of the Nano Bachao Committee (Save Nano Committee), which is an apolitical platform for the common people of Singur, syndicate members, people who had given their land willingly for the Nano project and people who were trained to get jobs in the factory," 41-year-old Kushal Saha, a resident of Beraberi in Singur who heads one of the syndicates, said.

Altogether the syndicates have around 300 members.

The satyagraha will begin demanding that the Nano project once again start in Singur.

"The people who had given land willingly for the Nano project, want to see that their land is well utilised. In the last two years, we have seen socio-economic upliftment of Singur, surrounding the Nano plant. But this rural development completely stopped with the pull-out of the project," Saha said.

Global auto major Tata Motors announced on October 3 this year that it was pulling out its Nano project from the troubled Singur in West Bengal, and blamed the principal opposition Trinamool Congress for the "painful" decision.

The auto major's decision came 32 days after it decided to suspend operations in the Singur factory fearing for security of its employees who were manhandled and threatened by Trinamool Congress-led protesters, demanding the return of 400 acres out of the total 997.11 acres taken for the project.

Since its inception in May 2006, the project to roll out the Rs 1 lakh car, encountered resistance from the Trinamool Congress-led farmers, protesting against the "illegal" acquisition of farmland.

"We are starting the movement with the prior permission of the police," Saha confirmed.

These people are also looking forward to meet the Governor of the state and members from the state's administration to discuss whether any sort of industrialisation is possible in that (the land meant for Nano project) abandoned land in Singur.

Tata Motors has relocated Nano to Sanand in Gujarat.