Protests against a factory being built in eastern India to make the world’s cheapest car forced a halt to work for a second day Saturday as vehicle giant Tata Motors mulled the plant’s future.
“There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far, hence the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today,” Tata Motors said in a statement.
“We continue to assess the situation closely” at the plant in Singur in the Marxist-ruled West Bengal state, said the company making the $2 500 compact car, known as the “Nano” and billed as the world’s cheapest.
The halt to work came a week after Ratan Tata, chairperson of the Tata conglomerate, warned he would move the plant from the state if the protests kept up at Singur, on the outskirts of state capital Kolkata.
Tata Motors was expected to make a decision soon on the fate of the plant into which the company has already invested $350-million.
At the company’s general meeting in Kolkata earlier this month, Ratan Tata said, “We would move, whatever the cost, to protect our people.”
“I can’t bring our managers and their families to West Bengal if they are going to be beaten, if there is going to be violence constantly,” said Ratan Tata, who had conceived of the flagship project as a way to get India’s masses off motorbikes and into cars.
The shutdown came after police had to escort hundreds of workers on Thursday from the factory when angry demonstrators blocked the exit.
Thousands of protesters yelled “Go back, go back,” when some labourers reported for work on Saturday at the plant, which according to the government is 85% complete.
The West Bengal government, which had wooed the Tatas to set up the plant in the impoverished state to create jobs, has said the protesters will not be removed forcibly and the dispute will be settled through negotiations.
The protesters say poor farmers were forcibly evicted to make way for the factory and want the land returned.
India’s top business leaders have warned the country’s global image as an investment destination could suffer a major setback if the tea-to-trucks group, known for its strong philanthropic streak, was forced to withdraw the small car project from West Bengal.
“If the House of Tatas can face such resistance, the much-needed fresh wave of industrialisation in the country could suffer,” Sunil Mittal, chairperson of India’s largest cellphone company Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.
West Bengal has been at the forefront of recent battles over land rights in India. The struggles have pitted the interests of farmers, who say they will starve without their land, against those of business and India’s government, which say the country needs to industrialise rapidly.
Activists led by the powerful regional opposition Trinamool Congress have said they will only call off the protests if the government returns 160 hectares taken from farmers.
Tata Motors hopes to start selling the four-door car in October.
But analysts say the demonstrations have put the target date for the debut of the snub-nosed car, whose innovative low-cost engineering has been hailed by industry watchers, under severe threat. – AFP