Tata finally dumps Singur

Tata Motors, traumatized after being continuously poked, prodded, taunted, bullied and threatened finally decided that they’ve had enough. The company has packed its bags and checked out of Singur, West Bengal in order to relocate the plant and machinery.

The statement issued by the automobile giant read, “Tata Motors has been constrained to suspend construction and commissioning work at the Nano plant in Singur in view of the continued confrontation and agitation at the site. This decision was taken in order to ensure the safety of its employees and contract labour, who have continued to be violently obstructed from reporting to work.''

This sequence of events isn’t exactly out of the blue… ever since Mamta Banerjee wielding a ‘lathi’ stepped into the Tata Nano plant, Tata motors has been shifting to Plan B for it’s Nano project. Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress leader directed her partymen, along with hundreds of cadres from fringe Left parties, to lay siege at the factory site demanding a return of 400 acres of land to farmers.

This is an especially damning move for West Bengal C.M Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's who had doled up an ambitious plan to revive the industry. It’s the second of the one-two punch for him after the harrowing Nandigram issue.

In case you didn’t already know, there was a nightmarish bloodbath between ultra-Left activists and farmers over acquiring some land in Nandigram which led to the end of an SEZ worth thousands of crores from an Indonesian Group. The C.M had hoped that his state's image of being hostile to industry would be changed for good after saving Rs 1,500 crore from the Nano project.

The cheapest car in the world certainly has a lot of speed bumps in its journey towards birth. Let us hope no further incidents slow down the progress.