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Kolkata: Clashes broke out in eastern India yesterday between supporters and opponents of Tata Motor's Nano, the world's cheapest car, after the firm suspended work at the plant because of a land row.
The high-profile project in West Bengal state became embroiled in controversy after the local opposition party backed protests by some farmers against land seizures for the factory.
The dispute reflects a larger standoff between industry in India and farmers unwilling to part with land in a country where two-thirds of the billion-plus population depend on agriculture.
After weeks of protests and threats against workers, Tata Motors Ltd suspended work at the plant late on Tuesday despite investing $350 million (Dh1.3 billion), and said it was looking at alternative sites for the project.
The decision has sparked anger among supporters of the project, many of them members of the state's ruling communist party or farmers who had got compensation or jobs at the factory.
Police said Nano supporters blocked traffic on a road leading to the factory in Singur, an hour's drive from the capital Kolkata, and beat up activists of the opposition Trinamool Congress who had been protesting near the plant since last week.
"We had to use force to clear blockades by the pro-Tata supporters, mainly those associated with the project," said Raj Kanojia, a senior police official.
Mamata Banerjee, chief of Trinamool Congress, had offered talks to resolve the dispute just before Tata announced its decision.
"Having gone bankrupt politically, the communists are beating our people," she said. There is anger, too, among urban citizens who see the Trinamool protests as counterproductive to the state's efforts to industrialise. Hundreds of IT workers and engineers marched in Kolkata, covering their mouths with black cloth and holding placards that read "Yes to Tata, No to Mamata".
The Nano project has been billed as key to the rejuvenation of industries in West Bengal, where the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist government has changed tack after decades of focus on helping agriculture and poor farmers.
But many farmers say they were forced off their land and offered paltry compensation to make way for the factory.
Meanwhile, with Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi playing the mediator, the state's ruling Left Front government and the opposition-led farmers' front will hold a meeting today to find a solution to the row.
"The date for talks has been finalised. It'll be held Friday," senior Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chattopadhyay said.
The development came a day after Tata Motors signalled its readiness to pull out of West Bengal and suspended operations at the Singur plant in view of the continued confrontation and agitation at the project site.
Frustration: Man takes own life
Local police say a father of two labourers at Tata Motor's troubled small car factory in eastern India has killed himself.
Sushen Santra died yesterday, a day after the company suspended work indefinitely at the site.
Santra was largely supported by his two sons who worked at the Tata factory in Singur in West Bengal state, but the men had not been paid since work was suspended last week.
Police official Priyabrata Bakshi says Santra, a farmer, swallowed pesticide in his village just outside the plant and died in a Singur hospital.
- AP
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