Kolkata: Residents of Singur in West Bengal's Hoogly district staged protests on Thursday when officials from Tata Motors came to inspect the land where the company plans to set up its car-manufacturing unit.
Villagers, who feared displacement if the project comes up in the area, shouted slogans and expressed anger at the possibility of their land being acquired by the state government.
The villagers said that they would be homeless if the project comes up in the area as the government would readily hand it over to Tata Motors.
The company had last week announced its plans for setting up a Rs 1,000 crore new car manufacturing plant from where it would roll out its common man friendly car.
Following the protest, Tata Motors officials along with the officials of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation left the place.
While, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee downplayed the incident shrugging off all contentions saying that there wasn’t any opposition by the locals against setting up the car plant.
"Nothing has happened," said Buddhadeb.
However, the Agricultural Minister Naren De, said that the villagers had only presented their demands to the company officials before they start working on the planned project.
"Some villagers met the Tata Motors officials when they visited the area and possibly spoke to them about some of their demands," said Naren De.
Apparently, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was looking forward to this car unit from the time since Tata's Managing Director, Ratan Tata forwarded the business proposal soon after he acquired the Chief Ministership of the state last month.
In a press meet, some weeks ago he had expressed keen interest in the Tata Motor's business proposal and had given an invitation to the company officials to set their expansion plans in the state.
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