Jangveer Singh

Farmers and activists of the Haryana Yuva Kisan Sangharsh Samiti marched to the Parliament House on Friday demanding water supply for drinking and irrigational needs.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI: With the siege of the Deputy Commissioner

The protest against the proposed Mahamumbai Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) promoted by Mukesh Ambani

Today turned to be the most inconvenient day for commuters, tourists and general passengers here when they have experienced a lot of hardship when agitating farmers from this subdivision under the banner of the Kisan Vikas Sabha (KVS) blocked traffic at three different routes paralysing the whole traffic movement for about four hours. The local police and the administration have failed to persuade them to lift blockade beyond their schedule time.

The Singur plant will require a full 1,000 acres since the ancillary units are an integral part of the small-car project, Tata Motors has clarified to the state government through a letter.

"We had sent a letter to the Tata Motors managing director (Ravi Kant) to find out what exactly they had written to Mamata Banerjee on the land requirement in Singur and its use,' industries minister Nirupam Sen said today.

"He has replied that the small-car plant would need 1,000 acres, and that the vendors or ancillary units are very much part of the project.'

A "worried' Ratan Tata has no intention to pull out of Singur "until and unless forced to do so', the Bengal government said tonight in the first public admission that the car project is not as foregone as was being made out.

"Actually, he is quite worried about the developments in Singur. He did not anticipate this kind of thing to happen for such a project,' industries minister Nirupam Sen said tonight after meeting Ratan Tata at a city hotel.

Nalas (Rajpura): Following agitation by villagers in Nabha, now residents of over seven villages near Rajpura are up in arms against the government's plan to procure around 1,000 acres of fertile land for the 1,320 MV Rajpura Thermal Power Project (RTPP) near Nalas.

The villagers demand is to be paid at par with the Jheurheri villagers, who received compensation after their land was acquired for an international airport near Mohali.

JAIPUR: Hundreds of small and marginal farmers from 25 districts of Rajasthan took part in a rally organised here on Wednesday to register their protest against a mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation planning to conclude the Draft Modalities on Agriculture in Geneva on July 21. The participants in the long march pointed out that the draft in its present form did not address the concerns of farmers and had failed to show any willingness of the developed countries to reduce their "trade distorting subsidies'.

Activists of five farmers unions and rural workers staged a dharna in front of the deputy commissioner's office here today. They were demanding redressing of their complaints and starting projects for the rural poor under the NREGA in the district.