The Hindu Business Line : Nano project: Ratan Tata to meet Buddhadeb on Friday

Kolkata, Sept. 30 The Chairman of the Tata Group, Mr Ratan Tata, will meet the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on October 3 to discuss the future of the Tata small car project in Singur.

Addressing newspersons after the conclusion of an all-party meeting that was held here to discuss the Nano project, Mr Bhattacharjee confirmed that his meeting with Mr Tata had been scheduled for Friday.

Today’s all-party meeting was attended by all constituents of the ruling Left Front, the Congress party and the BJP, among others. Among those who did not attend the meeting were the Opposition Trinamool Congress and the SUCI.

Resolution circulated

After the meeting, the State Government circulated a resolution that was adopted by all the parties, barring the Congress. The resolution stated that Tata Motors be requested to commence construction at the plant site even as the State Government was urged to provide adequate financial compensation package and facilitate rehabilitation of those whose land had been acquired for the project and those – including agricultural labourers – who have been economically impacted by the project.

The Congress party, however, did not agree with the resolution and said the State Government had convened the all-party meeting a bit too late.

Mr Bhattacharjee said the Congress party had failed to understand that disturbing the integrated nature of the project would impact its viability and, hence, the ancillaries cannot be shifted from their present locations. He said it would be impossible to return more than 70 acres to the unwilling farmers from within the project site.

Mr Bhattacharjee said while the State Government was keen to ensure that the Nano project is implemented, whether that would happen was dependent on other stakeholders as well.

The BJP said after the meeting that the way the State Government had handled the Singur issue lacked transparency and the issue of industrialisation had given way to political one-upmanship. It was all for the Tata project in Singur but insisted that the interests of farmers must also be protected.

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