The Hindu Business Line : Mamata open to talks on Tatas’ car plant issue

Kolkata, Aug. 7 The Trinamool Congress Chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, on Thursday said she had no objection in talking to anybody on issues related to the Tata Motor’s small car project in Singur.

In response to a question by reporters here, she said, “I do not have any message for the Tatas. But if anybody wants to talk, I am ready to talk.” It was appropriate at the political level to hold talks with anybody, she added.

In response to Ms Banerjee’s statement, Tata Motors released a terse response stating, “Tata Motors is not averse to talking to anyone”.

Slow work

Meanwhile, work at the Singur small car factory has slowed down significantly, with worker attendance of only 50-55 per cent, following the ongoing political turmoil in the region.

Among other things, the controversy over returning 400 acres of land to “unwilling” land losers seems to have cast a long shadow over prospects of economic development in the area around the Singur plant.

According to one view among local people, even if the disputed land were returned to farmers, it would no longer yield any crops because the entire land inside the factory “has been laid with 5-6 feet of sand and concrete.”

Over 70 per cent of work at the factory has been completed, a worker told Business Line.

A local shopkeeper said the sale of commodities of daily need had increased over the last 18 months, especially because workers from other parts of the State had come to reside in the region.

Monthly room rents had also shot up, from a few hundred rupees to Rs 2,000-4,000 per room, with 7-15 workers sharing each room, a landlord said.

With the recent political disturbances, however, most of the workers had left, significantly bringing down sales and rents.

A contractor said land prices in the region had shot up to Rs 2-3 lakh per cottah from a mere 40-50,000 two years back.

“A great many land transactions had taken place on both sides of the Kona Expressway as well as in the interior, with a number of cold storages, rolling mills, confectionery and dairy factories being planned to be set up in the region,” he said. But in recent times, the transactions had dried up, he added.

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