Nano: delay may see tata ''no''

 

 

The car may be branded as 'Nano', but the loss the state is going to suffer is macro-level. The loss is in terms of employment generation, investment and finally, industry's confidence level. Tata Motors was supposed to roll out Nano by this October. However, the company is now finding it difficult even to set up its factory at the 1,000-acre land at Singur, West Bengal. Though the land was allotted by the government in the first quarter of 2007, it is obvious that the farmers, who owned the land, were in no mood to part with their only source of livelihood. So when the government opted to forcibly acquire the land using suitable Acts instead of dialogues, it invited conflicts. As the local MLA belongs to the main opposition, the Trinamool Congress, politics came in to jeopardise the whole issue. Partha Chatterjee, senior TMC leader, says he does not know what is causing the delay. “This is something for the Tatas and the government to think about. Not only in the Nano factory, work in more than 500 other factories is also being delayed. And don’t ask me why because I don’t know!”

“We are not against the Tatas setting up a factory here. They can do so on a 600-acre land, which is sufficient for them and which also has the people’s nod. The rest of the land is for ancillaries, which can be relocated,” says Becharam Manna, a senior TMC leader of Singur.

But the minister-in-charge for industries in the state government, Nirupam Sen, fears that in such a situation, the Tatas may retract the project, which would be disastrous. In fact, various automobile parts manufacturers have already expressed their desire to open their units here. “The illogical, politically motivated movements might wreak havoc on the confidence level of the investors, forcing them to opt out,” said an anxious CPI(M) MP Sudhangshu Shil. The Nano factory, he added, could employ about 10,000 youths, while the ancillaries could generate lesser numbers of mployments. “It is unfortunate that other economic activities, which could have started by now, are also getting delayed due to the TMC-backed Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee (KJRC) movement. But the major loss the state will suffer is the confidence of the investors on the three-decade old Left Front government. Besides, industrialisation in the state might be delayed by another decade,” the CPI(M) MP said.

Sukanta Koley, an entrepreneur and Sanatan Parta, a homoeopathic doctor from Singur, pointed their fingers to the state's style of functioning. Koley said, "The government should have talked with the peasants. Instead, it tried to bulldodze resistance, ignoring even their partners in the Left Front." Dr Patra said, "Facing stiff resistance, the CPI(M) employed thugs to spread terror and Tapasi Malik is the example." Time has proved that the villagers are not about to getr some relief!