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Kolkata/Chennai, Aug. 22 The impasse will be contained and the project at Singur plant will continue, Mr Nirupam Sen, West Bengal Industry Minister, said on the sidelines of a meeting with various Chambers of Commerce here on Friday. “I have already assured Mr Ratan Tata and I am also open to talk with anyone else on this,” he told reporters.

The government is open to discussions and is willing to explore proposals, only if they did not hamper the progress of industrialisation in the State and is well within the legal framework, Mr Sen said.

He emphasised that it was not possible to return the land acquired for setting up the ancillary units to landowners. “Once a land is acquired by the government for any public purpose, it should be utilised for that purpose alone. Whatever excess land remains unutilised should also be used for some other public purpose. In case this was not possible, the land should be put to public auction,” he said, quoting a Supreme Court ruling.

He also said that returning the land as demanded by the Trinamool Congress leader Ms Mamata Banerjee would hamper the project on the whole. Close to 290 acres has been allocated for setting up the ancillary units at the Tata small-car plant.

“It is very important to have the ancillary units in the close vicinity of the mother plant without which it will be very difficult for the company to offer Nano at such a competitive price,” he said.

On the issue of compensation, Mr Sen said a majority of the farmers (10,852 of them covering an area of 691.66 acres) have accepted the compensation while 2,251 landowners covering an area of 305.47 acres have not yet accepted it.

The government was working on some concrete rehabilitation policies, he said. “We are working on a rehabilitation package, but this cannot be subjective in nature and has to be market driven,” he said. He added: “The complete rehabilitation policy will be put in place within some days.”

Chambers’ reaction: Leading industry and trade bodies have expressed concern over the developments, stating that Tata Motors pulling out of West Bengal will hamper the future industrial development of the State. The development of the State could not suffer due to political differences, they said. They have suggested dialogue among all concerted to sort out all issues.

The Confederation of Indian Industry wanted an immediate solution through dialogue and any adverse development with regard to the project would irreversible hamper the State’s future industrialisation and could take itback to an age of industrial vacuum, its Director General, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, said in a statement.

The Assocham President, Mr Sajjan Jindal, said that if Tatas were allowed to pull out of their Singur project it would completely ruin industrial progress in the State. The Tatas pulling out would send wrong signals to investors and take the State back to the 1970s when West Bengal witnessed large exodus of industrial units.

The FICCI has appealed to the West Bengal Government and Opposition leaders in the State to sit across the table and work out a solution. It emphasised that no industry should be caught in the cross fire of the local political process and come to such a point that a project might have to be abandoned. This would create problems for the State in attracting investments, it said in a release.

More Stories on : Cars | New Projects | Politics | West Bengal | Tata Motors Ltd

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