TATA NANO RELEASING ON 23rd MARCH

KOLKATA: The Tata Nano will roll out on March 23 and bookings for the cheapest family car will start from the second week of April. But the news

scarcely had any impact in Singur -- site of the original Tata Motors plant from where the iconic small car was originally meant to roll out in October 2008.

After quitting Singur last October, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata took just over five months to make an official announcement about rolling out the world’s cheapest car.

But far removed from all this, the sense of slumber in Singur is complete. No more agitations, no blocking of the vital Durgapur Expressway and no rallies or meetings either over land acquisition for the small car project. Everything is running smoothly without the usual business at the Nano factory site which is now being seen as an abandoned factory site.

Sometimes, curious passers-by using the Durgapur Expressway stop by for a while to look at the abandoned factory site. Singur, which could have once placed itself in the world’s transport map, is now a relic of the past.
The only important development that took place after the Tatas quit, was the release of former CPIM Singur zonal committee secretary Suhrid Dutta, who was arrested by the CBI on the charge of murdering a local Singur girl Tapasi Malik.

The other development which sitrred a hornet’s nest in Singur was the arrest of CBI officer Parthasarathi Bose, who was heading the Tapasi Malik murder probe and arrested Dutta and Debu Malik, a local CPIM supporter. Bose was arrested none by his colleagues in the CBI reportedly for accepting bribe.

Another famous Singur denizen and close confidante of Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, Becharam Manna, is no longer in the media glare. "These days we are a lot busier clearing cases against 700 of our supporters who were falsely implicated by the police for organising agitation against acquisition of land for the Tata project," Manna told ET on Thursday.

Unfazed by the news that the Nano would roll out in March, Manna said "We have nothing to do with Nano roll out. We are much busy helping our own men who are facing police cases. However, we will again launch our agitation demanding return of 400 acres from the previous Nano site in Singur."