Commerce Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai speaks to Business Standard on the impact the Tata Motors decision to pull out of Singur will have on the investment climate in the state.
'Investors abroad will think if a big company in India faces such hurdles, what will happen to us. But this is an isolated case. I was in West Bengal a month back and there is a whole series of investments lined up. But investors waiting in the sidelines with their plans to come to India may have second thoughts because of this incident,' says Commerce Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai.
Accompanied by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation managing director Subrata Gupta and local Trinamool MLA and school education minister Rabindranath Bhattacharjee, Bengal industry minister inspected the entire site and held a meeting with WBIDC officials at a camp office located within the premises.
Value of the land has appreciated manifold after the announcement of the Tata Motors' project at Singur.
After deciding to release 52 political prisoners, the West Bengal government will now withdraw cases filed by the Left Front regime against those who took part in Singur and Nandigram movements, and at Netai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday.
"We do not have tanks there, but we have people there going to farmers' houses and beating them up and threatening to kill them."
Tata Motors on Thursday said it will have talks with the West Bengal government on the Singur land when the Nano factory was originally slated to come up, a day after state principal industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen said the world's smallest car would be made there.
Tata Motors owns 1,000 acres in this rapidly industrialising town in the prosperous terai region of the state. About 30 per cent of it is learnt to be vacant.
Even as Tata Motors is racing against time to get its new Singur plant near Kolkata ready for commercial roll-out of the Nano by October 2008, the company may need an out-of-the-box solution to overcome some delays in the integrated plant and component park structure proposed for the vehicle.
West Bengal chief minister, who had a talk with government lawyer Kalyan Banerjee on the apex court order, said the Supreme Court had not stopped the land survey and process of distribution of land in Singur.
The legislation revokes the original lease agreement signed between Tata Motors, the country's biggest automobile maker, and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.
West Bengal's Left Front government is working on a proposal to find a solution to the stand-off over acquisition of land in Singur for Tata Motors' car plant, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu said on Friday.
Trinamool Congress workers, led by party president Subrata Bakshi, on Tuesday stormed into the prohibitory order-bound site of Tata Motors' small car project in Singur cutting about 10 feet of barbed fencing, police said.
Industry minister hints at inviting Mistry to the upcoming annual industrial meet.
Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy said no talks could be held if the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC continued to be in force at Singur.
BHEL officials had inspected the site in Singur earlier this month where the state government proposed to set up a 1600 MW mega power plant as a joint venture. Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had last week said the Railways would set up a rail coach factory in the site jointly with the state government or under a PPP model.
The company has been in discussions with vendors who are moving from Singur to Sanand to support them with mutually acceptable terms, which will be implemented.
The Tata project will directly and indirectly create about 10,000 jobs
Giving its verdict on an appeal by Tata Motors Ltd, a division bench comprising Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Mrinal Kanti Chaudhury observed that the President's assent had not been taken for the Act and as such it was void and unconstitutional.
West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi on Thursday held a series of meetings with the state government and Trinamool Congress in the run up to Friday's crucial talks that could discuss a proposal for higher compensation for farmers whose land was acquired for the Tata Motors car project.
West Bengal's new Minister of State for Agriculture Becharam Manna on Wednesday faced angry protests from farmers who had lost their land in Singur. The farmers said they would not have joined the agitation against Tata Nano's project had they known they would be left to their fate.
Government officials working overtime to dismantle the Tata plant and return land to farmers, says Ishita Ayan Dutt.
The apex court feels that the Tatas cannot say that they still have interest inland acquisition, as they have moved its car plant out of West Bangal.
The company on Tuesday challenged before the court the RTI commissioner's competence to deal with the matter, with its counsel submitting before Justice Dipankar Dutta that the Right to Information Act was not applicable in case of an agreement involving industrial secrets. Justice Dutta has scheduled the matter for hearing on Friday.
The meeting between the West Bengal government and the Opposition in the presence of governor, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, seeking a breakthrough in the Singur impasse, appeared to have achieved success with the state accepting the 'land for land' formula, and offering 47 acres inside the factory complex now held by WBIDC and another 27 acres acres held by the power department inside the factory complex, along with state held (or 'khas') land of 43 acres
In a jolt to the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress defeated its candidates in trouble-torn Nandigram in the three-tier panchayat elections. The front also faced rout in three zilla parishad seats in Singur to Trinamool Congress candidates. The polls are seen as a litmus test for the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government's farmland acquisition policy for industries.
Mother plant apart, the project involved 54 ancillary units, which meant enormous employment potential. People would have had the experience of seeing a modern industry.
The Tatas have received a setback in the Singur land deal.
Putting up a brave front after the exit of Tata's Nano project from Singur, West Bengal Chief Minister Budhdhadev Bhattacharya on Sunday said the state government will fight and overcome the obstacles for industrialisation, observing that the state has lost one battle but not the war.
About 50 unwilling farmers have submitted applications for accepting the package, out of a total 2,200 awardees, while 15 have collected cheques. However, in terms of unique landowners, the number of unpaid farmers would be around 1,000. Some of them have an ownership dispute and hence the actual number of unique unpaid landowners eligible for compensation is not known.
The world's cheapest car, the Nano, may still roll out from Singur with Tata Motors today expressing hope that the West Bengal government's new rehabilitation package will evoke a positive response from unwilling land-losers who had refused compensation.
Govt passes ordinance, possibility of Tatas mounting a legal challenge
The opposition's hue and cry over Singur and Nandigram would not adversely affect investment prospects in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Saturday.
Mamata, for her part, said, "I am happy that he listened to all the details from me about Nandigram and Singur. I will meet him again if he calls me after discussing the matter with the concerned people."
Members of a Trinamool Congress-backed body torched a police watch-tower and uprooted fence posts at the Tata Motors' small car project site.
More importantly, Ms Banerjee should develop a vision beyond Singur that encompasses the whole of West Bengal and the developmental challenge it faces.
The new Bengal government is not ready to give over even half the required land.
Tata Motors went ahead with mobilisation of construction equipment at Singur on Monday and enrolment of locals for work on the Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) greenfield plant amid heavy security.
Mamata said she wanted 600 acres of land for the proposed rail coach factory.
Stung by Ratan Tata's accusation that competitors were fuelling the controversy over Tata Motors' car project at Singur in West Bengal, Maruti dared Tatas on Wednesday to name the competitor.
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