While West Bengal Industries Minister Nirupam Sen on Thursday hailed Tata's Rs 1 lakh-car, saying it made the state government “happy and proud”, protesting Save Farmland Committee members burnt an effigy of the car outside a police station in Singur.
The car, displayed at an auto expo, is slated to roll out from the Singur plant very soon.
“It’s a matter of pride for the state and nation that the world's cheapest four-wheeler rolled out from the Tata stable. It’s a great milestone for West Bengal as the car will shortly get manufactured from the Singur plant,” Sen told the newsmen at the state secretariat.
Protests and security
However, the unveiling of the Rs one lakh ‘Nano’ saw protests and demonstrations from the Trinamool Congress-backed Save Farmland Committee of Singur outside a local police station, with the protesters burning an effigy of the car.
Security deployment around the plant and police station has been beefed up as hundreds of anti-farmland activists led by its convener Becharam Manna, laid siege before the police station, claiming that Tata Motors would not be allowed to roll out its car as the “entire construction has illegally been made on the farmers’ land. The farmers of Singur will resist tooth and nail any move to manufacture this one lakh car from this factory which has been set up on the blood of farmers," Manna said.