In a renewed attack on the Tata Motors small car factory site at Singur, a group of 50 farmers damaged a portion of the concrete wall on Thursday morning, forcing the police to fire tear gas shells to disperse them.
“About 40 to 50 people gathered and tried to break the wall. Police timely intervened and resorted to tear-gassing. No one was injured and there was no major damage to the wall,” state Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told newsmen at the state secretariat here.

However, according to Singur Save Farmland Committee convener Becharam Manna, the farmers damaged the wall at around 9:30 am. “Our people at Khaserveri area attacked the site and damaged a part of the wall. The fight is still on,” Mr Manna claimed.

Reports from Singur said the area was tense, and sporadic clashes between villagers and the police continued till noon. About 997 acres of fertile farmland at Singur, around 45 km from Kolkata, have been fenced off by Tata Motors for its small car project after it was acquired by the West Bengal government.

“A huge area surrounding the project that does not fall into the 997-acre site, has run dry after Tata Motors blocked irrigation channels for the small car project. Farmers whose land has not been acquired, are faced with a near starvation situation as they can’t till the land any more,” Mr Manna said. He also vowed to further intensify the “guerrilla attack”.

Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee already ruled out the possibility of returning land to the agitating farmers. But the current probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged rape and murder of the 18-year-old Singur girl and anti-land acquisition protagonist Tapasi Malik created fresh tension following the arrest of the Singur CPM zonal committee secretary S Dutta and a party associate recently.

While it invited angry reactions from the ruling Communists, the Opposition Trinamool Congress cautioned against attempts to “dilute” the CBI probe.