Nandini Sen Gupta NEW DELHI

THE Tata Motors top management has reportedly indicated internally that the company will pull the plug on Singur if the situation does not improve in the next fortnight. Sources said even though the company can dismantle its Singur plant and install it somewhere else, it will lose Rs 100-200 crore on account of expenses incurred in laying the foundation, besides the inevitable delay in fullscale production of the Nano.

Saubhadra Chatterji & Nistula Hebbar / New Delhi August 26, 2008, 0:54 IST

It was proposed as a panacea for all land acquisition disputes and agitations accompanying industrial development in India.

The amended Land Acquisition Act, 1894, pending before a parliamentary committee, will in all likelihood see the light of day whenever the monsoon session of Parliament is called.

At a meeting of the standing committee on rural development today, it was decided that the last hurdle, the report on the Bill, would be finalised by September 3-5.

Business Standard / New Delhi August 25, 2008, 0:57 IST

Shishir Prashant / Dehra Dun August 25, 2008, 5:58 IST

Tata Motors may be facing an uncertain future over its Nano project in West Bengal.

But in Uttarakhand, the auto major is seeking concession on lease rent as well as some more land from the state government in the Pantnagar industrial estate, where it has a manufacturing facility for Ace trucks.

Official sources today said the company has demanded that the lease rent for its 1,000-acre industrial plot should be lowered to Re 1 per sq metre from the present rate of Rs 5.

Bs Reporter / Jalandhar August 25, 2008, 5:56 IST

The Punjab government has decided to invite Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata to set up a plant in the state to manufacture Nano. The invitation comes on the back of Tata's threat to pull out of West Bengal if the political opposition to the project continues.

"I will soon write an offer letter to Tata to formally invite the group to install the small car's plant in Punjab, for which every possible facility will be provided by the state government,' Punjab Industry Minister Manoranjan Kalia told reporters here on Sunday.

Bs Reporter / Singur August 25, 2008, 0:12 IST

Allegedly owned by CPI(M) promoters, it is not cultivated, says Trinamool leader. Rally turnout lower than expected.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee suggested earmarking 500 acres of land opposite the controversial Tata Motors factory site to make the "people's car', the Nano, in Singur for the project.

Kozhikode: Industries Minister Elamaram Karim has said that the State government is not in the race for Tata Motors' Nano project.

"The government is not in favour of snatching a project of another State. Our party [the Communist Party of India-Marxist] is trying to amicably settle the issue,' Mr. Karim told The Hindu here on Sunday.

He said the government did not want unhealthy competition among the States. "However, Tata Motors is wholeheartedly welcome to the State if the company has fresh ideas. If they approach, we are ready to host a new project,' he said.

KOLLAM: Kerala Congress (B) chairman R Balakrishna Pillai has called upon the State Government to follow the West Bengal model in allotting Special Economic Zones in the state.

Speaking at a news conference here on Friday, he said the LDF Government could follow the criteria adopted by their West Bengal counterparts in allotting the SEZs. Instead of allotting thousand acre, the state should allot small holdings up to 50 or 100 acres for setting up SEZs, he said.

Marcus Dam

KOLKATA: Amid elaborate security arrangements, the Trinamool Congress and its allies on Sunday launched an indefinite agitation outside the Tata Motors' car project site at Singur in West Bengal's Hooghly district.

"The

BY PARWEZ HAFEEZ
KOLKATA

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday said that the first Nano car will roll out in October. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday reiterated that unless 400 acres of 1,000 acres, was returned to the unwilling farmers, she would not lift the siege of the Tata Motors' small car plant at Singur. The situation is extremely fluid and it is not yet possible to say whether the Tatas will shift the Nano project to some other state.