Fresh tension gripped the site of the Tata Motors’ small car project here after a farmer whose land was taken over for the project, hanged himself on Friday.
This was the second such incident since March to rattle the Buddhadev Bhattacherjee government which have been taking pains to shore up the car project in the face of fierce resistance from a section of the farming community over the acquisition of land.
According to the family members of Prasanta Das, 40, who committed suicide, he was driven to commit suicide as he suffered from bouts of depression after his land was acquired for the project.
Das, a prominent member of the Save Farmland Committee, Singur, hanged himself from the ceiling, senior police official Kalyan Mukherjee confirmed. He, however, refused to comment on the reason behind the death.
The dead farmer was a resident of Khaserveri area in Singur, about 50 km from Kolkata in Hooghly district.
Meanwhile, asking the government to return all the farmland forcibly acquired for the project, the Save Farmland Committee convener Becharam Manna said the farmers would never give up their agitation.
“Das was depressed as he had not been able to till his land for nearly a year and was worried about the future of his two daughters. He had refused to accept the money given as compensation for the Tata project. He was an active member of the movement,” Mr Manna said.
Over 997 acres of land in Singur have been acquired by the state government for the project, triggering a violent face-off between the government and the farmers, led by civil society groups and Opposition parties.
Earlier on March 13, a farmer Haradhan Bag had committed suicide in Singur.