BY SUBRATA CHATTOPADHYAY
KOLKATA

Apparently rattled by the huge success of Trinamul Congress-led siege of the Tata Motor's site at Singur, the ruling CPI(M) has come up with a plan B formula to offer the belligerent Mamata Banerjee. In its desperate bid to placate Ms Banerjee, the CPI(M) satraps are contemplating the idea of acquiring 400-acres land at an alternative site.

BY DIBYAJYOTI CHAUDHURI
SINGUR
Led by Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, thousands of people on Sunday laid an indefinite siege of the Tata Motos' Nano project site at Singur in Hooghly. Twenty-one dharna platforms were erected along the boundary wall of the factory for what Ms Banerjee described as a "peaceful satyagraha'. Belying apprehensions, there was no incident of vandalism or violence although thousands of angry protesters converged on the site. The exemplary restraint demonstrated by the police also averted a confrontation.

KOLKATA: Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has expressed anxiety in the wake of the call for an indefinite agitation by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from August 24 demanding return of 400 acres of land which, she alleged, was forcibly acquired from farmers for the Tata car project at Singur.

West Bengal Industries Minister Nirupam Sen called on Mr. Tata here late in the evening on Thursday to discuss the developments.

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The Tata Motors authorities have sent a letter to the West Bengal government, stating that they require over 997 acres to set up the automobile manufacturing project and ancillary units in Singur, Industries Minister Nirupam Sen said on Thursday.

The letter was in response to a clarification sought by the government on a letter the company had sent to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on the project.

Ms. Banerjee had highlighted a paragraph in the letter that between 600 and 650 acres was required for the car plant.

LANDING IN TROUBLE
Bs Reporter / Kolkata August 22, 2008, 1:02 IST

In a new twist to the controversy surrounding the 997-acre plot for the Nano car plant of Tata Motors at Singur, 40 km west of Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress (TC) controlled gram panchayat in the area said it would not grant any permission to the plant, like environmental and water-use licences, and also threatened to take action against the company as its factory was blocking the rainwater drainage channel of the entire area.

LANDING IN TROUBLE
Saubhadra Chatterji / Semrota (uttar Pradesh) August 22, 2008, 1:01 IST

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Bhupinder Singh Hooda should take heart. They are not alone in facing political storms over their governments' land acquisition efforts.

Congress' star general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, too, got the rough edge of his constituency's tongue when, during a free-wheeling interaction in Amethi, his voters berated him for eyeing their land, even if for development.

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.

V.K. Ramachandran

New data show that, even over the last three years, the extent of land acquired by the State government for industrial and infrastructural purposes was a fraction of the agricultural land distributed under land reform.

The primary point of distinction between Left-led and all other State governments in India is that, on coming to power, every Left-led government has confronted the agrarian question directly. Land reform has been integral to the policy of the Left in government from the outset.

The 255-acre zone coming up in Gurgaon to cost around Rs. 4,500 crore

MEGA ZONE: Navin Raheja (left), Chairman, Raheja SEZs, Yogesh Raheja (second from right), Director (Projects) and R. C. Aggarwal, President, ISPER (Architecture firm), at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Raheja Developers on Wednesday launched the Rs. 4,500-crore specialised