From rxpgnews.com
Tatas satisfied with Singur land acquisition
By RxPG News Service,
Nov 26, 2006 - 12:56:53 AM
Kolkata, Nov 25 - A top Tata Motors official Saturday said the company was satisfied with the progress in acquiring land for its small car project in West Bengal, even as opposition leader Mamata Banerjee said the state government was spreading lies about the acquisition process.
'The government is acquiring the land fairly quickly and the progress so far is satisfactory,' Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant told reporters here.
'Look at the track record of Tata Motors. The project would benefit only the state,' he said, adding there is no change in the plan to launch the small car in 2008.
Ravi Kant said the project at Singur in Hooghly district, about 45 km from here, would help create a whole hub of automobile components and the people would reap the benefits in 10 to 15 years.
'We are creating a whole hub of auto components and the whole clutch of auto component supplies would be right here,' he said.
The Singur factory would provide direct employment to 2,000 people and initially create 10,000 indirect jobs, Ravi Kant said.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress chief Banerjee said the government was spreading misinformation about the land acquisition.
'While about 550 acres of land is yet to be procured from farmers, the government says it has got more than 900 acres of the 1,000 acres needed,' she told reporters.
Banerjee was referring to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's statement in the state assembly Thursday that 913 of the 998 acres needed had already been acquired.
Dubbing it as a lie, Banerjee said her party would bring a privilege motion against Bhattacharya for misleading the house.
Expecting her to storm the site of the project, the government had sent a police force there Saturday evening.
Banerjee had been forcibly removed from Singur during an agitation when police also baton-charged the farmers, including women.
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