Police clash with agitators at Singur

Special Correspondent
The Hindu, 5 January
Violence spreads to different parts

- Teargas shells burst to disperse protesters
- Anuradha Talwar, supporters detained

KOLKATA: In a fresh violence at Singur in West Bengal's Hooghly district on Sunday morning,the police clashed with agitators who tried to set fire to the fencing at the construction site of the car manufacturing plant to be set up by the Tata Motors.

The clashes continued intermittently through the afternoon, spreading to different parts of Singur even as Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee called for intensifying resistance against the acquisition of farmland for industry at a rally at Nandigram in adjoining Purbo Medinipur district.

It was the first of a series of rallies Ms. Banerjee plans to address as part of her campaign against farmland acquisition in different parts of south Bengal and her first since she called off her 25-day hunger-strike in protest against the Singur project on December 28 and 29 last.
The police lobbed teargas shells and used lathis to quell an attack by activists of the Trinamool Congress-led Krishi Jami Raksha [Save Farmland] Committee who stormed towards the project site and tried to tear down the fencing in the Beraberi area of Singur. The demonstrators hurled bombs and bricks when challenged, injuring at least two policemen.

At another spot social activist Anuradha Talwar and some of her associates were detained by the police while on their way to demonstrate outside the fenced off area in protest against the proposed project, construction work for which began on January 21. Eight persons including the local convener of the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee were arrested. The Trinamool Congress leaders claimed that many of their supporters including some women were injured when attacked by the police.

Since the start of work there have been at least three attempts at damaging the fencing by those opposed to the setting up of the automobile manufacturing plant. There were also reports of violence from the Khejuria area, about 18 km from Nandigram, in which houses of some supporters of the Communist Party of India [Marxist] were set on fire. The party office was also reportedly attacked and a link road to the area dug up by villagers to prevent the police from entering.

Nandigram was the scene of group clashes in which six persons were killed on January 6-7 following rumours that acquisition of land for a proposed Special Economic Zone in the area was imminent.

"There will be no acquisition of farmland and no eviction of people from their land for as long as I am alive", Ms Banerjee told the well-attended rally at Nandigram.