LA NUIT BENGAL

The Telegraph, Editorial

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110522/jsp/opinion/story_14011424.jsp

The wise believe that everyone has two countries — France and her own. It is a relief to realize that the chief minister of West Bengal, the redoubtable Mamata Banerjee, is not an exception to this sage generalization. Her cabinet, announced after much drama very early on Saturday morning, will bring to mind the old French saying, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.’’ (“The more things change, the more they stay the same.’’) Change is, paradoxically, the guarantee of continuity. Ms Banerjee, it may be recalled despite the euphoria, had promised a small and compact cabinet. But she announced that her government would have 44 ministers. This is exactly the number her predecessor had in his cabinet. Under the existing law, West Bengal can only have 44 ministers since the upper limit for the number of ministers is 15 per cent of the total strength of the legislative assembly. Maximum leaders thus form maximum cabinets. Ms Banerjee has kept up with her rival. At the height of the Sino-Soviet dispute, the Chinese increased the alcohol content of the local vodka by a full percentage point to keep up with the Russians. Ms Banerjee has demonstrated that she is second to none in keeping up with the comrades. By forming a large cabinet, Ms Banerjee has violated a very elementary principle. What is good politics is not necessarily good governance. Even its critics will be forced to admit that the Left was good in politics, otherwise it could not have been elected seven times in a row. But the Left also ran an incompetent government, in fact, one of the worst in India. This resulted in West Bengal’s humiliating decline in all spheres. The point can be illustrated with a different example. The creation of numerical quotas through reservations makes for good politics as it brings electoral dividends, but it is certainly not good governance as it reduces the society’s and the country’s dependence on merit and competence. The largeness of Ms Banerjee’s cabinet is directly related to the largeness of her electoral success. Her triumph brings with it too many winners and too many expectations. To meet these expectations, she has, like her predecessor, chosen to address the demands of her party. Her party is only one of the stakeholders in the making of West Bengal. There are other stakeholders: most notably the people of the state. She has put the interests of one group of stakeholders above the others. This is the downside of a bloated victory. It has resulted in a bloated government. She would do well to remember that both Rajiv Gandhi and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had massive mandates that led to very high expectations, even outside the party. By failing to meet these expectations through good governance, they lost in subsequent elections. If Ms Banerjee overlooks these lessons, Bengal will not emerge from darkness.

Mamata factory plan on Nano site- Trinamul chief sings industry tune

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090803/jsp/bengal/story_11314325.jsp
Singur, Aug. 2: Mamata Banerjee today sprang on Singur a proposal for a railway coach factory, taking a symbolic pro-industry stride in the same spot where she had launched the agitation against the Nano.
The state government could do little but pledge support if a formal proposal was made but experts said Mamata’s plan could not be implemented without changing the law. Besides, the Tatas, who have renewed the lease, are holding the land where Mamata wants to set up the coach factory.
“I have spoken to various Union ministries and told them that if the Centre gives the land to the railways, we can set up a production unit with PPP (public-private participation),” Mamata said, flagging off a train to celebrate the agitation that had driven out the small-car project from Bengal.
Andolan Local connects Singur with Howrah.
“The land is lying with someone but no industry is coming up here,” Mamata said, iterating her demand that 400 acres from the Nano plant be returned to their original owners and the remaining 600 be used for industry.
“In Singur, we want both industrialisation and agriculture. If the Centre gives us the land, we will develop industry on 600 acres and return 400 acres to the farmers.”
Legal experts said the Centre could not “hand over” the plot to Mamata because “land acquisition is a state subject”.
“The Singur plot had been acquired by the state for the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC). Tata Motors is merely a lessee and the Centre can’t interfere in this,” said lawyer Arunabha Ghosh.
“To start a new project by another owner, the WBIDC will have to auction the land after returning the lease amount paid by the Tatas and the plot will go to the highest bidder.”
To return the land to its erstwhile owners, the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, has to be changed.
Tata Motors paid Rs 1 crore this April and renewed its lease for its 647 acres for another year. Many of vendors earlier slated to set up shop in Singur have also renewed their lease.
At the commercial launch of the Nano in Mumbai on March 23, Ratan Tata had said the company had no plans to give up the land. “The factory sheds are still in place over there. We haven’t decided what to do with them,” he had said.
Official sources said if the Tatas had to give up their land, it had to be voluntary or there could be legal complications.
However, the Bengal government could not reject Mamata’s proposal. Industries minister Nirupam Sen said the government would think over it if she approached with “definite plans” and “proposals”.
“The land was meant for industrial activities and if she wishes to set up a railway coach factory, the state government does not have any objection to it. She should approach us with definite plans and proposals.”
The country’s first Kisan Vision project will come up in Singur, Mamata announced. “We have identified a two-acre plot adjoining the station. Agricultural produce will be sold here and a food-processing unit will also be set up,” she said.
Singur station has been granted Rs 50 lakh as a model station.

The Siege Show at Lalgarh

http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=3946&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=15&valid=true

by DEEPTANIL RAY

Two days back, a kid at the varsity asked me my opinion about the police crackdown at Lalgarh. I was rather surprised. No one asks for anyone's opinion in this country. The television images show only surreptitious Maoists, marching policemen and cheerful commentators; the adivasi villagers are silent faces that flicker on the screen. No one asks them: whether they want all those police and Maoist squads alternately ‘liberating’ their villages, or the media pestering them about how they like the show.

It was when the cyclone Aila and its victims had been declared passé by our shapers of opinion that all the city-bred news gatherers with their bottles of mineral water and cameras flocked to the once-forested lands where the people usually die unheard, of drought, malnutrition and perennial hunger. No, they didn't really care about the exploitation and torture of the indigenous people through the centuries, or now. These macho bite collectors were keener on reporting their own daring exploits while they selectively reported the march of the state's hounds and Cobras against the state's ‘Other’, the Maoist communist party. A typical TV grab of the Bengali or the national channels over the week has some reporter standing next to a metalled road and persistently going on about being inside ‘a recently-liberated Maoist zone’, some gun-totting policeman marching by, or some sombre-faced bespectacled analysts babbling away on the implications of the showdown.

While the state's hounds are known to shoot, rape and torture in most ‘operations’ (our 'sensitive' media has faithfully ignored this bit till now), their ‘Other’ too has its own ingenious methods of inspiring terror— for instance, keeping the corpse of a 'class-enemy' in public display and letting it rot away in the summer heat for four days. The media has been faithful in reporting the ‘Other’s atrocities; it has kept silent on how scores of villagers have ended up in relief camps set up in schools outside the zone of conflict. Hearsay in Kolkata city tells of deaths and merciless beatings: the media reports none.

Is it believable that the police have marched ‘peacefully’ through villages in Lalgarh? On June 28, 2009 (Saturday), eight members of a citizen’s Fact Finding Committee were arrested from the Midnapore railway station as they were trying to reach Lalgarh, and sent to Kolkata in a prison van. Among them was the Gopal Menon, an award-winning documentary filmmaker from Karnataka, and human rights activists from West Bengal and other states. Earlier, the state government had lodged a case against Saoli Mitra, Aparna Sen, Kaushik Sen and other Kolkata intellectuals who had visited Lalgarh calling for peace. In the absence of independent news, news from Lalgarh is what the West Bengal government wants us to hear.

Far removed from the events, the kid at the varsity asked me a lot of pertinent questions. I too listened to them intently though I didn't have answers to any of them. I believe this has got to do with the way in which I see the world now— differing shades of fuzzy grey, than the clearly demarcated black and white of old that rested on the ridiculous question: "Which side are you on?" It's not a Nietzschean vision of pervasive evil; it has got more to do with the reality of the times in which we live.

What will come of this? The kid asked me. Again, I didn't have any answers. Apart from many future acts of torture and further unreported acts of violence and deaths of the adivasi population, I said, both the state and the Maoists will be celebrating their victories against the 'enemy'. It'll be, as good old Kundera famously said, a part of the eternal histories of laughter and forgetting. And the people's struggle will be to remember, and to remember it all, against newer atrocities.

I told him that the problem lies with the unquestionability of the 'means' by which some closeted and very obstinate minds always think of achieving some perfect and quick 'end'— ‘restoration of order’ or ‘lal-salaam emancipation’, whichever way you put it. People question the ends and theoretical purposes of these ends, and there are hot debates, talk-shows, treatises, critiques and critical tomes, etc. But as a rule, the means are never questioned, and certainly not in the media.

As far as the media houses go, none of them have seriously called into question the necessity of this police action. In a broader sense, they are following the old practice of unquestionable tacit support to the state which tries to solve each of its problems by using brute force. Three random examples from the edits of some of the dailies read here:

From The Telegraph edit (Saturday, June 20 , 2009):

“The problem is that not even a liberal head of government can afford to dawdle in the face of an insurgency. It is imperative on the part of a government to establish its authority over the territory under its jurisdiction. The quicker it does so, the more effective is its authority. The government has allowed the situation to grow into alarming proportions instead of curbing it when it was small. Having begun the counter-attack, belatedly, it should not drag its feet. If necessary it should take the help of the army.”

From The Hindu edit (Friday, Jun 19, 2009)

“True, the Left Front government and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were distressingly slow to wake up to the crisis. But the Union government, which sees the Maoist upsurge as a national security threat elsewhere in the country, has been quite happy to let the Left Front government struggle with a difficult situation. The thinking seems to be that it should be made to pay the political costs of quelling the Lalgarh revolt, and it may even be a case of hoping: the bloodier, the better. The situation in West Midnapore is too serious to allow for such crass politicking. The Manmohan Singh government must not lose any more time in coming to the aid of West Bengal’s Left Front government in tackling the Maoists, and their surrogates. Else there will be a heavier cost to pay.”

From the June 29th Indian Express editorial:

“To ensure that development gets the promised security cover, the government must actuate its planned counter-offensive along the Jharkhand-Orissa, Jharkhand-Orissa-West Bengal, and Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh borders, securing the area first and then beginning the developmental activity.”

Did any one of these edit writers think of what will happen to the civilian populations caught in the middle of their desired final conflict? They didn't really care.

Questioning the 'means' falls inside the realm of ethics: that important something which makes us humans. Outside it, there's a world that will continue to suffer 'collateral damage'.

The state prevents the media from witnessing firsthand the police action, it arrests and deports a human rights team that goes in to investigate, it slaps cases on Kolkata intellectuals who were trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to things. And the media by and large agree with the role offered to them by the state. In this foul is fair weather, being skeptical is closer to the truth.

The ruling party in West Bengal plans to not forcibly acquire land

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090525/jsp/frontpage/story_11017039.jsp

Land impact on CM’s lips Party dissects local factors

BISWAJIT ROY

Bhattacharjee at the CPM state committee meeting on Sunday. Picture by Amit Dutta Calcutta, May 24: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today virtually admitted that discontent related to land played a crucial role in the Left parties’ poll debacle and made it clear land acquisition would be put on the backburner for the remaining two years of his term, sources said. The chief minister’s specific observations before the CPM state committee did not find mention in the official party release which sought to strike a balance between both national and local reasons — the subject of a raging debate — behind the drubbing. “It is true that the all-India voting trend has also influenced the outcome in Bengal. Having said that, we can’t ignore our shortcomings in the functioning of the government, the party, the Left Front, panchayats, municipalities and our mass organisation as well as in public relations. Accepting the people’s mandate, we will take corrective measures,’’ the statement said, without making a direct reference to the land controversy. However, sources told The Telegraph that several members raised the issue at the meeting, following which the chief minister responded. The sources said Bhattacharjee did not delve into the national issues as they were highlighted in an initial note distributed by state party secretary Biman Bose. Bhattacharjee “accepted the criticism” against the state government and said that henceforth, he would proceed by “accepting the people’s mandate”. “The chief minister made it clear that he would abide by the people’s verdict which had gone against us on the land issue. From now on, he will take a flexible and cautious approach in pursuing the government’s development goals, particularly those involving land acquisition. No major land acquisition will be carried out if the local people do not want it,” a committee member said. Bhattacharjee also stressed on what some members called a “course correction”. He spoke of “time-bound implementation” of rural development projects, including job-generating schemes, rural electrification, public health and education packages to win back voters who had deserted the Left, the sources said. Bhattacharjee admitted that the government’s style of functioning has to change to make it more accountable to “poor people”. He said the cabinet core committee would meet on May 28 to set guidelines to implement the government’s priorities. The state committee did touch upon the issues raised by the politburo last week — such as the failure of the third front and the voters’ perception that the Congress could provide stability. Although the pro-Prakash Karat faction in the politburo had insisted that the withdrawal of support to the UPA and the vote against its government were ratified by the politburo and central committee “unanimously”, it was clear that the Bengal leadership wanted to debate both issues. However, in line with its composition, the state committee utilised most of the latter half of the session to discuss local factors — the first time a party forum attempted to dissect such issues after the results were announced. The criticism against the state party and the government largely revolved around disenchantment among the rural poor, which was blamed on the land acquisition programme. A committee member said the state government’s “hasty” and “forcible” land acquisition and subsequent violence in Singur and Nandigram had alienated farmers. Some leaders carried to the meeting the public criticism of the central leadership’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA — articulating the deep divisions within the CPM — but others did not spare the local leadership either. “The state leadership is trying to absolve itself of responsibility. They must answer why the so-called Congress wave stopped at the border of Bihar and Orissa,” a veteran member said This section pointed out that the urban middle class, both Bengali and non-Bengali, did not come out overwhelmingly in support of the Left Front, belying the party’s hope to cushion the loss elsewhere. Today’s meeting did not settle the question which factor was decisive in the poll debacle. The committee will wait for feedback from booth-level campaign committees as well as district committees before meeting again on June 11 and 12 for a “full-fledged review”.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090525/jsp/bengal/story_11016767.jsp

Copycat land protest by CPM

ABHIJEET CHATTERJEE

Durgapur, May 24: A poll-stung CPM has taken a leaf out of the Trinamul Congress’s book and forced work to stop at a state government coal-mining project, demanding better compensation for landlosers. Some 1,000 villagers alle- gedly led by local CPM leaders stoned workers at the open- cast mine project in Bankura’s Borjora on Friday, demanding jobs for landloser families and cash for their farm labourers. One worker was injured. Trinamul had earlier objected to the project with similar demands but with the CPM then in favour, 105 acres of the required 750 acres were acquired in 2007 and digging started last October. Now CPM opposition has halted the project with 25 per cent of the work already done. “We have stopped work since our workers are feeling insecure after the stone-throwing,” said P.P. Mishra, an official of Trans Damodar Coal Mining Project, a private firm hired by the government. Aloke Mukherjee, Trinamul leader and Borjora gram panchayat chief, said: “The CPM is trying to hijack our agitation. We were agitating from the outset; now the CPM has placed the same demands. They are trying to copy us to improve their image.” One perceived reason for the CPM’s poll debacle was its post-Nandigram image of land-grabber. The party is now desperate to acquire a “farmer-friendly” face. The secretary of the CPM’s Borjora zonal committee, Tarun Raj, denied forcing the project to stop. “We submitted our charter of demands; we don’t know about Trinamul’s demands,” he said. Bankura district magis-trate Sundar Majumder said: “The ADM will hold a meeting with the parties and project authorities in a day or two.” The project was conceived after the state government appealed to Coal India in 2004 to mine coal in Bengal so that the steel and sponge-iron plants in Burdwan, Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore had uninterrupted coal supply. Most of the land in Borjora is multi-crop, and the government offered Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6.4 lakh an acre. The compensation package included jobs for those losing two acres or more, 3.5 cottahs of developed residential plot against loss of a house, and 25 per cent of the land price to the sharecroppers.

Lok Sabha elections 2009

http://picasaweb.google.com/insypoo/GeneralElections2009KolkataCampaign Modes of industrialisation -- the main issue on which the elections were fought in West Bengal (more specifically in Kolkata) http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090517/jsp/bengal/story_10980294.jsp Revenge complete, cry for peace and lost land

OUR BUREAU

Sayra Biwi (centre) on Saturday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal Nandigram/Singur, May 16: Left a widow by “CPM goons”, Sayra Biwi will whisper a few words of thanks when she kneels down to pray tonight. “My revenge is complete,” said the 33-year-old, a mother of four, as news of Trinamul Congress candidate Subhendu Adhikary’s victory over the CPM’s Lakshman Seth in Tamluk reached Nandigram’s Bainchabari village. “Now we can hope there will be peace here after all.” Sayra’s husband had been killed during the CPM’s “recapture” of Nandigram in November 2007. Today, she played with abir outside her home. “I have been left to bring up my four children on my own, but at least the CPM goons who killed my husband have been defeated,” she said. “When I pray today, I will thank the Almighty for all that He has done for us.” If Nandigram, in East Midnapore, celebrated, so did villages in Singur, where the land war began. But unlike in Singur, part of the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat that Trinamul’s Ratna Dey Nag won and where many hope that their land will now be returned, all that the villagers in Nandigram want is peace. Nearly 1,000 pro-Trinamul villagers, who fled CPM strongholds and took shelter in Maheshpur High School after being terrorised by party workers for “daring” to vote, want to return to their homes. “We expect Trinamul will ensure peace so that we don’t have to flee our homes any longer,” said Sheikh Saidul Ali, 23, a farm labourer from Satengabari. Ali had left home on May 8 morning with wife Jahanara and one-year-old son. It was the third time he had to flee since the Red Army’s November 2007 assault. “I feel happy that the party that stood by us during our agitation against land acquisition has won,” said Abhijit Samanta, 32, who was injured in the March 2007 police firing. “To start with, it can bring peace in Nandigram.” Trinamul’s victory also meant a change in menu for those stranded in the refugee camp at Maheshpur. “For the past eight days we have been living on rice, pumpkin curry and dal. Today, for the first time, we were served rohu fish for lunch. Trinamul leaders came and distributed sweets,” said Sheikh Aksar Ali, 35, who lives in Ranichak. In Singur, Trinamul supporters burst crackers as victory processions wound their way through Beraberi, Ghoshpara, Sahanapara, Saterbheri and Bajemelia. But for the villagers, uppermost on their mind was the return of the land taken over for the Tata Motors project. “We want our land back,” said one as others nodded. “We want our new MP to ensure that,” said Paramita Das, 43, a housewife in Beraberi whose four-bigha land had been acquired. “We are farmers,” said Haripada Das, 65, another landloser. “We feel helpless without our land. We don’t need factories in Singur.” http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090517/jsp/nation/story_10969760.jsp Nano too small to provide shelter to comrades MEGHDEEP BHATTACHARYYA Another defeat Calcutta, May 16: The Nano lost its second battle today. In October, the Left-led government failed to keep the people’s car project in Bengal. Today, the Left parties failed to rid e it to win urban votes against Mamata Banerjee. In its worst poll performance in over three decades, the Left lost all the six parliamentary constituencies — Calcutta South, Calcutta North, Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Barasat and Howrah — in which its main poll plank was Mamata’s anti-industry image. To counter the Trinamul Congress chief’s Maa, Maati, Maanush chant, the Left had drawn up a poll campaign with the exit of the Nano as one of the central themes. By pitching the world’s cheapest car against Mamata’s giant cut-outs, CPM strategists tried to woo urban vot ers by blaming Mamata for the shift of the Tata Motor’s small car plant from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat. But the strategy of holding Mamata responsible for Bengal’s failure in becoming Detroit did not pay off and left the CPM wondering what went wrong. “In the past few years, the party was getting more acceptable among the urban voters and that got reflected even during the Calcutta Municipal Corporation p olls…. So, we did not expect such a rout in the city and its suburbs,” a senior CPM leader said. Among the six constituencies in and around the city, Calcutta North consists entirely of urban voters while more than 90 per cent of Calcutta South is urban. “Pro-industry stance of a party is expected to woo a majority of urban voters who depend on industry and service sectors for their livelihood. But it seems that hasn’t worked this time and that comes as a surprise,” said a professor of economics at St Xavier’s College. A case in point is Calcutta South from where Mamata won by a margin of 2,19,571 votes by bagging 57.19 per cent votes. Despite the predominantly urban character of all the seven Assembly segments — Kasba, Behala East, Behala West, Calcutta Port, Bhowanipore, Rashbehari and Ballygunge — she got more than 51 per cent votes in each of them. Trinamul’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay also got more than 51 per cent votes in all the seven Assembly segments in Calcutta North — Chowringhee, Entally, Beleghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Manicktala and Kashipur-Belgachhia. The CPM’s Sujan Chakraborty lost to Trinamul’s Kabir Suman by 56,706 votes in Jadavpur constituency by upsetting all party calculations. Though the CPM had expected that the Jadavpur Assembly segment would give Sujan a decisive lead, the poll outcome told a different story. In 2004, Sujan got a lead of over 23,000 votes from this Assembly segment, which came down to around 19,000 this time. “There hasn’t been any split in Opposition votes this time and there has been a nation-wide sweep in favour of the Congress. But it is clear that issues like the exit of the Nano has failed to create much impact among the urban voters,” a senior CPM leader said. Sanjukta Ganguly, a first-time voter in Barasat constituency, tried to explain why the Nano issue failed to prevail over Maa, Mati, Manush. The dentist said she the exit of Tata Motors from Singur had upset her but she did not consider the pullout while casting her vote. “A project’s relocation cannot be a poll issue. Mamata has been successful in projecting herself as a leader who stands by the people and that’s why her party has done well,” she said. The Left’s failure to solve the unemployment problem was a much more important issue. The Left’s role as an ally of the UPA for over four years also cost it dearly in the urban constituencies which supported Mamata’s change chant and gave her a thumping victory. “The only high point for them was pulling out of the government on the nuclear deal issue… Instead of supporting the government from outside and creating trouble on major policy issues, they should have joined the government and done something for the people of the state,” said Deep Banerjee, a techie in his early thirties. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Mamata-Banerjee-Riding-in-on-peoples-car/articleshow/4541432.cms Mamata Banerjee: Riding in on people's car KOLKATA: Cheap cotton saree wrapped clumsily, chappals flapping, hysterical pitch, and eyes smouldering in chronic rage, Mamata Banerjee punches above her weight. She has finally kayoed the Mighty Marxists. She had joined battle as a mauled David. Her Trinamool party's Lok Sabha tally was down to just one, and her Assembly strength stripped to a mere 35, Didi had nothing to lose. She played the wild card -a high-stakes gamble on Singur and Nandigram -and won. Having arm-twisted the CPM into offering a compromise in Singur, she had with typical cussedness stonewalled the gesture.But she refused to blink despite the charges of her sabotaging West Bengal's big chance of industrial salvation. She had shrewdly read the public's anti-Left mood. She went for the jugular. A high-pitched, no-compromise posture on Singur might have put off urban voters, but Mamata knew that, outside city limits, politics was bare-knuckled. She whipped the land-acquisition fear into a frenzy. It was a primeval insecurity guaranteed to make every farmer rise in revolt. She may have driven away the people's car, but she has roared up in style. She carefully kept up her homespun image, refusing to move out of her single-storey, ramshackle Kalighat house. Losses haven't tamed her aggression, or her unpredictability. Instead it has reaffirmed her mantra: if you get an inch, make sure you grab a foot. Mamata has finally humbled the Left Front. She doesn't botch it up, she could well be the rallying point of all those wanting to bring down Bengal's Red fortress. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Trinamool-paints-Kolkata-green/articleshow/4541302.cms Trinamool paints city green 17 May 2009, 0528 hrs IST, Prasenjit Mund & Sumati Yengkhom, TNN It was noon, and abir seller Sreeram Shaw was quietly putting away the red stock under the cart. There was just a mound of green abir on display, which he topped up with another sackful and carefully smoothed it into a peak. “No one will buy red today. None has since morning. The green one was selling well and now more and more people are asking for it,” said the youngster. Beside him, another youth put up his cart on Free School Street. Mantu Shaw had come in late - after seeing the Lok Sabha trends on TV — and he did not bother to bring any red abir. “Bhalo korechis. Lal cholchhe na. Green heavy bikri (Good thing you didn’t bring red. It’s not selling. Green is going great),” Sreeram told him. “This is what they call change, isn’t it,” Mantu replied. On Judgment Day, it seemed Holi had visited Kolkata a second time. But there was just one colour to be seen in the city — Trinamool Congress’ green, from north to south. Mamata Banerjee’s foot soldiers went out colouring everyone green, whether they liked it or not, including Canadian tourists Doug and Toby on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road. The duo, volunteers for Missionaries of Charity, looked bemused. “Elections back home are not this much fun,” said Doug. “We were not there for Holi, but now we know what it’s like.” In Kolkata North’s Rajabazar, where CPM’s Md Salim was supposed to be the be-all and end-all, hundreds of Trinamool supporters ruled the streets on bikes. A bunch of them blocked APC Road, zeroed in on a truck and commandeered it. “Gadi ho gaya,” one of them shouted and about 50 of them piled into the back. Green abir was smeared on the bewildered driver and he was made to turn around and drive away for “celebrations”. “We were angry with Md Salim, and we showed him that,” one of them shouted. A loud cheer went up. A group of glum-looking men stood on the other side of the road, with a dazed look. On CIT Road, the north-south divide seemed to have melted. One flank of the road falls in Kolkata North constituency, the other in Kolkata South. In 2004, one side was red — thanks to Md Salim’s landslide win — and the other green, after Mamata’s fourth consecutive victory. Cut to 2009, and there is only the whiff of Trinamool’s ‘joda phool’ on either side. On Anwar Shah Road in Kolkata South, a giant cutout of Mamata wore a fresh garland while a bunch of 20-or so supporters danced under it. They grabbed hold of a CPM supporter - a neighbour in the para - and dumped fistfuls of abir on him. “Why me...,” the CPM man complained. “Ekhon Aamra-i shob (now we are supreme),” the crowd replied. At Hazra crossing - Mamata’s stronghold - Trinamool supporters sped around whooping and honking, three or four to a bike. In North Kolkata, CPM workers quietly made way for a boisterous Trinamool procession past CPM leader Sudhangsu Seal’s house. “The Left’s young electorate has diminished and its impact is clear today,” muttered cadre Anil Das. At Jadavpur University, M Tech hopefuls Appayan De and Jaideep Dutta were discussing the poll results. “We guess the Congress-Trinamool alliance worked. People wanted to see a Congress government at the Centre and Mamata Banerjee as a minister again. They don’t want the Left complicating things,” De said. The feeling was echoed by a bunch of Trinamool supporters in Ranikuthi. “The mahajot (alliance) played a crucial role. People wanted a Congress-led secular government, without the Left trying to trip it at every hurdle. Remember, Mamata was excellent during her terms as central minister, especially when she had the railway portfolio,” said Bijoy Halder. “Assembly chalo is our next cry. We have won the semi-finals. The finals will be held sooner than you think,” said Barun De Mitra, a counting agent for Mamata. At a tea shop, some 20 feet away, sat a group of glum looking CPM men, with multicoloured hair. They had started the day with red abir - until someone dunked a bucket of green abir on their heads. “Dhele diechhe (they have poured it on),” said one of them. (Inputs from Devjyot Ghoshal & Arpit Basu) Sangbad Pratidin

Mamata threatens to resume land fight

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/bengal/story_10951932.jsp

Mamata threatens to resume land fight

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Over, finally: Mamata at her last rally for this election in Kasba on Monday. (Pabitra Das) Calcutta, May 11: Mamata Banerjee threatened to launch a fresh agitation in Singur after the polls demanding return of the land that she claimed was forcibly acquired, on a day the chief minister sought her apology for the flight of the Nano project from Bengal. “We shall start a movement after the polls demanding that the land forcibly acquired in Singur be returned to farmers,” the Trinamul Congress chief told a news conference at her Kalighat house today. At an interaction with jo- urnalists earlier in the day, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said: “The Opposition deliberately stopped the project and compelled the Tatas to leave… the Opposition… should apologise.” Mamata said: “Instead of advising me, Buddhababu should himself apologise for his undemocratic actions in Singur… I shall see to it that farmers who have not collected their cheques get back their land.” She iterated the charge that the chief minister had “forcibly acquired” land for the small-car project. “A day will come when Buddhababu will have to carry a poster on his back telling people that he will never grab farmland to fulfil his whims. He will have to return 400 acres (which she says was forcibly acquired) in Singur at any cost,” she added. A Trinamul general secretary said a blueprint had been drawn up for the renewed agi-tation. “We shall call a meeting of the Save Farmland Committee after the polls to re-launch the Singur movement.” Told that the chief minister had termed her party “indisciplined”, Mamata flared up. “I don’t like to take a lesson from Buddhababu about what is discipline and culture. He is a dangerous man who is encouraging violence by asking his police and cadres to unleash terror on the Opposition. A chief minister who does not stick to his oath of office should be sacked.” Reacting to the chief min- ister’s remark that he would not talk to the Opposition on Singur again, Mamata said: “I don’t feel like talking to him.” Bhattacharjee had accused Mamata of indulging in divisive politics because of her repeated claims that Muslims were being persecuted and their land was being grabbed. Mamata said: “If Muslims are being murdered, how can I change their religious identities? Of the 11 people killed since the second phase of the polls in the state, nine were from the minority community. Eleven Muslim brothers were massacred by CPM men in Nanoor in 2000. How can I keep my eyes shut?”

‘Apology’ on CM lips

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/frontpage/story_10951916.jsp

‘Apology’ on CM lips

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, May 11: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said he had “apologised” for the Nandigram police firing — the word of contrition slipping out for the first time in the last lap of the general election. “About Nandigram, I apologised after the firing when I addressed a meeting close to Nandigram. I felt very bad about it, I genuinely felt bad. I have always admitted my mistakes — something that my political values demand,” the chief minister told a media conference at the Press Club today, after pausing for a few seconds. Bhattacharjee had more than once described the Nandigram events that led to the firing as a mistake and expressed regret (“dukkha prakash”) but today he used the English word “apology”. It was not clear whether the chief minister deliberately chose the word but the timing was not without significance. The statement came 48 hours before voting in the last phase that covers several south Bengal seats where minority voters have a considerable presence. The violence in Nandigram, which houses many a Muslim family, is said to have compounded the alienation of the minority community from the CPM. The chief minister today referred to what he termed an Opposition attempt to fan communal passions. “Never in Bengal have victims of political violence been identified as Muslim or Hindu nor minorities ever instigated against an elected government,” he said, arguing that Muslims were in a bad shape not in Bengal alone. Referring to the loss of life in Nandigram, a sombre Bhattacharjee said: “Death of people in police firing is unacceptable to the tradition I belong to. It is against the values I have held in my entire political life.” The chief minister repeated that he would not have sent the police to Nandigram had he known that there would be a bloodbath. “I never dreamt that the police would be compelled to open fire. The Opposition was given an advance intimation of the police entry, not to take over land but to repair roads in Nandigram. We had sought their co-operation since the police were scheduled to stay for a day only,” Bhattacharjee said.

Farming and industry

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/frontpage/story_10952011.jsp

Maa, mati, manush: Sounds nice but not for son who won’t farm

DEVADEEP PUROHIT

Calcutta, May 11: Maa, mati, manush-er lorai (The battle for land, which people treat as their mother). If it were merely a slogan Mamata Banerjee had grabbed to massage the Bengali mind that moistens at the mention of Mother and Mother Earth, it would be quite harmless. But in the backdrop of Nandigram and Singur, it is threatening to acquire a legitimacy enabling its supporters to assume the moral high ground in this election and beyond. The argument is that farmland cannot be taken to build factories — a point Mamata keeps hammering in rally after rally to huge applause, though her ostensible opposition is to acquisition by force. “What will the farmer do if land is forcibly taken away?” she asks, playing on emotions. The jump from emotion to economics is but a baby step in politics: that the fertile land of Bengal enables farmers to grow three to four crops a year and takes care of their livelihood. If it were so, why would 45.5 per cent of Bengal farmers dislike what they do against around 40 per cent nationally (Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector, prepared by the Arjun Sengupta committee)? Why would a farmer’s son then not want to be a farmer? Mukul Molla’s family owns over 35 bighas in Shalpukur gram panchayat of South 24-Parganas. “I don’t want to soil my hands in the fields. I have a small medicine store and I want to make it bigger,” says the youth. “Most of my friends also don’t want to be farmers.” The report says that the rising cost of cultivation, low prices for farm produce, high risk of frequent crop failure, declining agricultural growth and mounting debts have plunged the farmer into a state of distress. Economists say the crisis is deeper in Bengal because over 65 per cent of its cultivators are small and marginal farmers who have less than two hectares. “Marginal and small farmers cannot make their ventures viable,” says S.D. Tendulkar, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council. In other words, the absence of an alternative to agriculture keeps farmers in perpetual poverty. Seen from this point of view, the cry of battle for land could sound like a fight to keep things as they are. A sharp rise in the number of people leaving agriculture in search of other vocations bears proof of the lack of profitability of farming. Between the 1991 and the 2001 censuses, the share of cultivators and agricultural labourers among main workers (who have work more than 183 days a year) fell by up to 10 per cent . Although green rice fields may inspire Mamata to take up the paintbrush, they hardly symbolise the well-being of rural Bengal. Nominal per capita consumption expenditure, a measure of purchasing power, in rural Bengal is among the lowest in the country . “If the rest of the economy is growing at 7 to 8 per cent whereas agricultural growth can at best be 4 per cent, this is bound to happen. Unless the proportion of people dependent on agriculture goes down, the situation will get even worse,” says Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. Ratan Khasnabis of the department of management in Calcutta University says foodgrain production growth dropped from 6.9 per cent in the eighties to 2.4 per cent in the nineties in Bengal. The result is the high incidence of rural poverty with around 27 per cent of the people living below the poverty line, which can be countered through productivity increase, diversification of agriculture and creation of jobs outside farms. “But if all field-based development projects are made into a law-and-order issue, we can’t go anywhere,” says a professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute. He speaks of the need to expand the Calcutta-Siliguri road, which can spur the rural economy along the route. “Land has to be acquired for this purpose but given the situation in Bengal, that is a tricky issue,” he adds. In the face of threats of unrest, the government has slammed the brakes on the proposed 84km Barasat-Raichak road, running through North and South 24-Parganas. Better infrastructure usually acts as a growth stimulant, giving farmers access to markets, among other things. Mamata claims she is not against industrialisation and development. Her suggestion to use non-agricultural land in districts like Bankura and Purulia and unlock the real estate lying unused in closed industrial units sounds sensible but is hard to implement. Freeing the land of closed factories is a lengthy process, not under the control of the state government. Shifting all industries to Bankura and Purulia has the potential to kick up a fresh round of problems. “You need proper roads to shift all proposed industrial ventures to Bankura and Purulia. To lay roads leading to the two districts land needs to be acquired and that will again be a problem. Then, there will be a problem with the tribal population there, who will have to be displaced,” explains Sen. Latest estimates suggest less than 2 per cent land in Bengal is non-cultivable, which makes decisions on locating new industrial units a difficult task. “There may be problems but the government has to discuss these issues with us. But the problem with the government is they don’t consult us,” says Trinamul’s Partha Chatterjee, who is optimistic that maa-mati-manush will fetch the party more MPs. His charge that the government doesn’t talk with the Opposition is not always true. In Katwa, where the state — and not any private entrepreneur — wants to build a power plant, all parties were called for talks but Trinamul didn’t turn up. Making Purulia and Bankura the sole destination for industries is also laden with the danger of uneven development. Some of these problems could have been bypassed had the government created a land bank or tried to find an answer to the trap of small landholdings and low productivity, ironically a result of its much-acclaimed land reforms. Land reform was almost the first thing the Left did after assuming power in 1977. The bankruptcy of ideas became evident following that. So far, there is nothing to suggest Mamata has any policy measures lined up beyond maa-mati-manush. Given the lack of ideas, it may be a blessing for her that she doesn’t risk being foisted on the seat of power at least until 2011. Agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan says the only solution is a proper land-use policy. “Non-farm income has to be increased for better livelihood of the people. A proper land-use policy is the most prudent way to meet that objective.” It is possible to have all the policies in the world — and all very proper — and still not get anywhere until you find a policy against sheer cussedness.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/bengal/story_10951934.jsp

Farmers vote for industry

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Durgapur, May 11: The government will acquire within two months 500 acres from farmers in Burdwan who had themselves offered their single-crop land for industrialisation two years ago. When the district administration issued a notification for the acquisition recently, none of them raised any objection. In a newspaper ad yesterday, it announced the decision to take over the 500 acres. Around 3,000 acres will be gradually acquired for an industrial complex in Ausgram and Kanksa blocks of Burdwan, about 200km from Calcutta. “We’ll verify the ownership documents within the next two months and announce the compensation package,” said additional district magistrate (land acquisition) Asim Bhattacharya. While pledging their land for industry in a memorandum submitted to district magistrate Manish Jain in June 2007, the farmers had sought a job for every landloser family besides cash. Samsuddin Biswas, 62, who owns over three acres, said he did not want his two science graduate sons to become farmers. “I did not pay for their studies to make them farmers. It will be better if they get jobs in the factories that would come up.” He was among those who had petitioned the administration for the industrial complex. “We are happy that the government has finally decided to set it up here,” Biswas added. District officials said the administration had held nine all-party meetings to gauge the mood on the ground and the possible compensation package before issuing the acquisition notice, but Trinamul Congress representatives attended only one of them. The party’s Durgapur president, Prabhat Chatterjee, declined comment. Only about 50km away, in Burdwan’s Katwa where a 1,000MW power plant had been planned, Trinamul leaders also skipped all-party meetings and later fanned anti-acquisition protests. The government has managed to acquire only 350 acres of the 1,000-odd required. In Andal, not far away, the party is resisting acquisition for a Rs 10,000-crore airport and city. However, Ausgram and Kanksa are known to be CPM bastions. Kohinoor Ganguly, a member of the Ausgram II panchayat samiti who had represented the party at the meetings, said everyone there had agreed to the hub. “We had discussed compensation between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 10.8 lakh an acre. Surveys have been carried out to find out how many youths were eligible for jobs and vocational training.”

Anti-Posco stir gets panchayat seal

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090508/jsp/frontpage/story_10931535.jsp

Anti-Posco stir gets panchayat seal

SUBRAT DAS

An anti-Posco protest at Dhinkiya village in Jagatsinghpur. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee Bhubaneswar, May 7: Victory of a member of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) in the recently concluded panchayat election has fuelled speculation regarding the fate of the proposed steel plant slated to come up in Jagatsinghpur. The proposed Posco project has been pending for over four years now. While pro-Posco groups have been left wondering, the anti-project group, PPSS, is now upbeat after its secretary, Sisir Mohapatra, was elected as the sarpanch of Dhinkia gram panchayat — at the epicentre of the anti-Posco agitation — yesterday. Another PPSS member Prakash Jena was also elected as the panchayat member from the same area. Panchayat polls were held in the area after a gap of two years. On February 21, 2007, when the rest of the state voted for its sarpanch, widespread violence by anti-Posco agitators in the area kept poll officials at bay. Talking to The Telegraph the new sarpanch reiterated his committed to the anti-Posco stand. “It’s a question of livelihood of the locals. I will definitely stand by them,” Mohapatra said. The proposed project, for which Posco signed an MoU with the government in June 2005, has been a non-starter due to consistent resistance by locals under the banner of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. Not a single acre of private land, identified for the Rs 51,000-crore project, has been acquired so far because of the agitation. The three panchayats to be affected by the project virtually blocked themselves from the government, the Posco staff and the police officers as villagers erected bamboo blockades. The area also witnessed series of bloody clashes between anti and pro-project groups. Though the anti-Posco agitation had lost its momentum following the arrest of PPSS chief Abhay Sahoo in October 2008, the victory of the samiti leaders in the panchayat poll has obviously given members a moral boost. Also, the present sarpanch and the PPSS second-in-command, Mohapatra, has sworn to prevail upon the government and relocate the project. However, even cynics see a silver lining in the matter. With the Lok Sabha and Assembly poll right around the cornet, the stand taken by local CPI, a party that furiously backed the anti-Posco movement, has softened. Every party has now adopted a wait-and-watch policy to deal with the matter. “If BJD comes to power again after May 16, we will try to resolve the issue (relocation) through negotiation,” said CPI state secretary Dibakar Nayak. He, however, admitted that the release of PPSS leader, Abhay Sahoo, would be the first precondition for the negotiation. Posco authorities are also hopeful that the project would eventually take off. “That the panchayat election was conducted shows that things are moving towards normal. We will now try to strengthen our relation with the displaced people,” said a senior official of the South Korean company. Posco is also looking forward to receiving a Centre and Supreme Court clearance to divert 2,900 acres of forestland that constitutes the a chunk of the total land requirement (4,004 acres). “For us, the transfer of forestland is important,” conceded an official.

Nano frenzy

Hindustan Times

Singur Drove Nano away, now it wants to drive it

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They want to ride the Nano because they want to show to their pro-farming leaders what they have missed.

Congress worker Ranjit Chatterjee was in a hurry on Thursday. He was not in a mood to miss even a second to apply for the Nano. He went to the State Bank of India branch here early in the morning to be the first to procure the application form.

He reached even before the bank had opened.

“Nano means technological advancement. Nano means moving forward. So, I have decided to gift it to my nephew who is studying computer engineering,” said Chatterjee, expressing sorrow over the Nano project's departure from Singur.

But Arun Das, the Congress candidate from the Singur Assembly seat in the 2006 elections, was unhappy even though he managed to procure an application form. He had wanted to be the first. “I was one of the first persons to give up my land for the Nano project. Though the plant is no more in Singur, I wish to be the first person from Singur to bag the Nano,” Das told Hindustan Times after receiving his application form.

“I want to ride the car because I want to show to our pro-farming neighbours what they have missed,” Das said.

According to State Bank of India sources, 25 application forms were distributed from its Singur branch. “The response was good. We expect more applicants in the days ahead,” P.K. Chandra, branch manager, said.

However, there was not much enthusiasm among general villagers in Singur about the Nano.

Peasants, who had protested against the Tata plant in Singur and had led to the project's withdrawal from there, however, seemed unperturbed. “It means nothing for us. Are we going to eat it?” Sahadeb Das, a septuagenarian from Khaserveri village, said.

Indian Express

Many Nanos rev up to roll into Singur

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/many-nanos-rev-up-to-roll-into-singur/445346/

The small wonder wows Kolkatans too, with huge crowds turning up to book the car

The Nano may not have rolled out from Singur, but it is certain to roll into the area in good numbers.

The response was overwhelming from the farmers and other residents of the area on Thursday, when the booking opened for Nano.

Naba Kumar Pal, who lives at Beraberi Dakshinpara in Singur, which was once the hotbed of the agitation against the land acquisition, was among the many who booked a Nano today.

According to officials of the banks collecting booking forms in Singur, there was an incredible response from people, which included the likes of Zairul Haque, who had given up his land for the Tata project.

In Kolkata too, the response was great. Twenty-one-year-old Divya Hans, a resident of Russel Street, is praying hard she is among those to get the car in the first phase of Nano allotment. Incidentally, this is going to be her first car, and her mother wants to gift the small wonder when she finishes her college.

On Thursday, Divya rushed to the nearest Tata Lexus showroom at AJC Bose Road and was busy filling up forms with her mother Seema Hans. “This is my first car. I hope I get selected in the first allotment. My mother is buying it since I will be completing my college this year. This car is good for girls as it is compact, small and looks elegant,” said the BA final-year student.

Alauddin Master, who has come all the way from Hooghly to book his Nano, is waiting to own his first-ever car at the age of 47. With his wife and daughter, Alauddin, a primary school teacher, thanks the Tatas for giving people like him a chance to own a car which is reasonably priced.

“This is the first car for me and my family. Its affordability is the main reason why I want to book it. My daughters are more excited than me. For people like us, such cars priced at such rates, are a blessing. Now I can proudly drive around in my brand new car, which I hope to get soon,” Alauddin said.

At showrooms like Tata Lexus Motors and KB Motors, the crowd said it all.

At the SBI outlets, the response was mixed with only a few centres getting drawing people in huge numbers, but officials expect it to swell from Monday. “Till 7 pm, there has been a very good response, with almost 103 bookings at our outlet alone,” said an official of the Tata Lexus showroom in the city.

For some like Poulami Majumder, the Nano booking has given her an excuse to learn to drive. Newly-wed Poulami was seen preparing to enroll herself with a driving school while her engineer husband, Mainak, was busy booking the car for his wife.

“My husband often goes on tours. He is gifting me a Nano, which I want to drive,” said Poulami, her excitement written on her face.

The Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090402/jsp/calcutta/story_10758021.jsp

Nano champion books ‘dream’ car

MEGHDEEP BHATTACHARYYA

Mukherjee with the Nano at a city showroom. Picture by Amit Datta Palash Mukherjee, 38, had dreamt of seeing his hometown, Singur, become an icon of Bengal’s industrialisation. But the dream was dashed with the Tata pullout last year. On Wednesday, the member of the Nano Bachao Committee had to be content with becoming one of the first to book a Nano in Calcutta. Mukherjee, a small-scale trader in medicines, left his Kamarkundu home in Singur early on Wednesday and took the 8.45am Burdwan-Howrah local to reach the city at 10am. He was one of the first to queue up outside a Tata Motors showroom in south Calcutta. “I couldn’t hold back my tears when I first touched the Nano. It’s a lovely car. It’s a dream come true but the dream isn’t ours anymore,” he told Metro. “But the joy in booking my first car fades into insignificance whenever I think of the deserted Singur factory,” he added. Mukherjee’s family had willingly given up around four bighas for the project and collected a cheque for Rs 11 lakh. “I felt proud that a part of the mother plant would come up on my land. We grew a little rice on our land but were ready to forego it for the small-car project,” Mukherjee said. “My cousin and I were involved with the factory canteen and also in supplying building material to the site. Those were the happiest days of our lives,” he sighed. Then, of course, Mamata Banerjee and Krishi Jomi Jeebika Rakkha Committee happened and the dreams ended. Mukherjee is one of the founder-members of the Nano Bachao Committee — formed a day before the October 3, 2008 pullout — and is its working secretary. He was also a part of the delegation that met governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee last year to try and save the project. “I begged with the governor. I did everything possible,” he said. But Mukherjee hasn’t given up on the Tatas yet. “The situation in Singur has improved since October. Ratan Tata is socially responsible, he won’t let us down. Security can’t be the sole issue, otherwise he would’ve closed down the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai (after 26/11),” he pointed out. So why was Nano his choice for the first car? “The Singur emotion overrides everything else. Also, it’s a great car, affordable for people from the lower-middle class. I can finally discard my old motorcycle and take my family out in our own car,” he smiled. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090410/jsp/frontpage/story_10802398.jsp Queries usher in Nano bookings OUR BUREAU Shyamaprasad Aich: Revenge buy April 9: Bookings for the Nano opened today amid confusing signals from the Tatas over the conduct of the computer-generated lottery in July. The Tata Nano website put out conditions for the bookings that specifically barred multiple applications by an individual. However, Tata Motors Finance — the auto financing arm within the group — said there would be no limit on the number of bookings that an applicant could make. The Tata Motors spokesperson saw no confusion between the apparently contradictory positions. “There is no upper limit on how many applications an individual can make. But we reserve the right to weed out multiple applications,” he said, without asserting that they would do so. If Tata Motors intended to weed out multiple applications eventually, why was it permitting Tata Motors Finance to accept multiple applications in the first place? It is fairly easy to weed out applications since the bookings have to be supported by PAN card identification. “Yes, multiple applications will increase your chances of winning an allotment,” said another official. The computerised pseudo-random number generation technique will select 100,000 allottees. Even more intriguing was a proviso in the booking terms spelt out on the Nano website which said Tata Motors would have the right to sell 10 per cent of the Nano production at its discretion and outside the lottery process. The car is now being produced at the company’s Pantnagar plant, which has a capacity to produce 4,000 units a month. Tata Motors is setting up a larger production plant at Sanand in Gujarat, which will have the capacity to roll out 2.5 lakh units a year. This plant is expected to be ready by December or early 2010. But the slight confusion over the booking rules didn’t dim the excitement at Tata Motors dealerships across the metros and towns. Many were paying the full booking amount of Rs 95,000 for the base model instead of seeking financial assistance. Retired central government employee Shyamaprasad Aich from Bijoygarh arrived early at KB Motors on Ballygunge Circular Road to submit his application form. He was one of the few to make an outright payment of Rs 1,40,000 to book the top-end LX variant. “My wife died on March 27. She had wanted a Nano very badly and would have seen one in her lifetime if Mamata hadn’t forced the delay. I want to buy one to pay my respects to her. I am booking the Nano to give Mamata a fitting reply.” The Tata channel partners were resorting to a bit of hard sell to get customers to book the car. At the Westside store on Camac Street, Club West members were being given gift vouchers worth Rs 300 to cover the cost of the form. Argentinian tourist Alexandro Vincent popped into Lexus Motors on AJC Bose Road to gaze at the world’s cheapest car. Vincent was “amazed” at the build quality of the $2,000 car. Will he buy the Nano Europa back home? “I just might consider that,” he said. Lucknow was one of the centres that witnessed heavy bookings — about 7,000 on the first day. Filmmaker Muzzafar Ali, who directed the film Umrao Jaan , was among the early applicants. Dealerships in Delhi, Mumbai, Ranchi and Jamshedpur reported bookings in hundreds. Most expect bookings to surge before the window slams shut on April 25. Many customers were disappointed they couldn’t test-drive the car. “Our dealers are unable to give out the car for test drives because of the numbers,” said the Tata Motors spokesperson. Most dealers have been given just one car for display.