Thaindian News

Kolkata, Aug 30 (IANS) Tata Motors’ plans to roll out the world’s cheapest car Nano from Singur in West Bengal continued to face trouble, with its workers not attending work at the factory for the second day running Saturday.”Our workers are not attending work today (Saturday),” Tata Motors said in a statement here, as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s indefinite protest at the Nano factory site in Singur entered the seventh day.

There was no work at the small car factory, about 40 km from here, on Friday too as the company expressed concern about the safety of its employees.

More than 600 engineers and executives of the company remained trapped for three hours inside the factory Thursday evening as the protesters, led by farmer leader Anuradha Talwar, squatted near the factory gate on the Durgapur Expressway, preventing them from leaving.

“There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far, hence the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today (Saturday),” a Tata Motors spokesperson said in the statement.

“We continue to assess the situation closely,” the statement said

On Thursday, the company had said the agitation, which has led to a fall in the attendance of contract labourers due to threats to workers, was “having an effect on the deadlines of the project”.

Nano, priced at Rs.100,000, is set to roll out from the Tata Motors’ stable in October. Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata had last week warned that he may consider pulling out of the state in view of the constant unrest the project has been facing over land acquisition.

The Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (KJJRC), backed by the Trinamool Congress, has been continuing an indefinite agitation at the Nano factory site since Sunday, demanding the return of 400 acres of land taken from “unwilling farmers” to set up ancillary industries.

A total of 997.11 acres was acquired for the project, of which 691.66 acres belonged to farmers who sold their land willingly.