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Kolkata: Indian police on Friday fired tear gas and beat villagers protesting land seizures who had tried to force their way into a factory owned by India's Tata Motors Ltd.
Tata Motors, a unit of Indian conglomerate Tata group, plans to launch the world's cheapest car, the Nano, later this year from its new factory at a 400-hectare complex in Singur, a cluster of villages near Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state.
Villagers, who say the car plant has forced them from their farmland, threw stones at police in the communist-ruled state and tried to damage a boundary wall of the factory.
At least 15 villagers and some police were injured in the clashes, police and community leaders said.
"We had to fire tear gas shells and use batons to chase away the protesters who tried to go inside," Rajiv Mishra, a senior police officer, said.
Obstacles
The clashes are a reminder of the obstacles that India faces in industrialising and competing with the likes of China as many villagers, two-thirds of a 1.1 billion population, protest the seizure of farmland.
The state of India's farmers promises to be one of the biggest issues ahead of a likely 2009 election.
In mineral-rich Orissa state, villagers have been protesting against several chemical and steel factories.
This week, villagers clashed over construction of a $250 million (Dh917 million) plant to produce titanium dioxide, a non-chemical agent used in sunscreen products.
Authorities said they had stopped construction work, hoping officials could sort out land acquisition problems in the India-Russia joint venture.
About 300 tribal people protesting the acquisition of tribal land for a steel factory in Orissa state set seven vehicles on fire this week.
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