PHOTO: ARUNANGSU ROY CHOWDHURY

VENTING THEIR IRE: A Tata Motors showroom that was ransacked by a naxalite group, in Kolkata on Monday.

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday assured the Tata Motors management that fencing at the site of its proposed car-manufacturing plant at Singur in Hooghly district would be completed "within a day or two" and the company could "prepare to come and start work" on its project.

Mr. Bhattacharjee said he had informed Ravi Kant, Managing Director, Tata Motors, about the decision.

A 24-hour Statewide bandh has been called on Tuesday by the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) in protest against the alleged forcible acquisition of farmland for the project.

The Trinamool Congress, which had called a bandh on the same issue on December 1, has extended "moral support" to the SUCI bandh.

The Government is taking all steps to ensure peace during the bandh.

Showroom attack condemned

Mr. Bhattacharjee strongly condemned the attack on a Tata Motors showroom in the city during the day and said that his Government would "not tolerate such attacks in the State." The police have been directed to take all steps to prevent a recurrence, he said.

Those responsible for the incident were members of a naxalite group opposing the Singur project.

The people arrested for the violence at Singur on Saturday when police personnel were attacked "with bombs, bows and arrows and acid bulbs" would not be released, Mr. Bhattacharjee said. Prohibitory orders that are in force in the area will remain as long as is necessary, he added.

BJP's appeal

Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh said that the Tata management should give its Singur project another thought before starting it.

"Industry should be set up on land other than farmland. We will not allow the interests of farmers to be jeopardised."

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu