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Friday, September 5, 2008 - Web posted at 10:46:20 AM GMT India's Nano car threatened KOLKATA, India - The governor of the Indian state of West Bengal began meeting farmers and opposition party members yesterday in a bid to end protests against a factory making Tata Motor's cheap Nano car, officials said Controversy over the factory in eastern India has hurt the state's image as an investment destination, and also reflects a wider conflict in India between industry and farmers unwilling to give up land for factories without adequate compensation. |
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Discouraged by the protests, which have been led by the local opposition Trinamool Congress party, Tata Motors suspended work at the plant this week despite investing $350 million. It said it was looking at alternative sites. This would undermine production capacity but is unlikely to delay the planned October launch of the US$2 300, snub-nosed car, billed as the world's cheapest. West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi separately met state officials in a bid to broker a settlement, setting the stage for a possible tri-partite meeting today Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has softened her stand this week and said on Wednesday a solution could emerge soon, in comments echoed by the state governor. Gandhi had invited also Tata Motors to join today's talks. The Nano project has been billed as key to the rejuvenation of industries in West Bengal, where the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist government has changed tack after decades of focusing on agriculture and poor farmers. But many farmers say they were forced off their land and offered paltry compensation to make way for the factory. The possibility of Tata pulling out has sparked anger among supporters of the project, many of them members of the state's ruling communist party or farmers who had got compensation or jobs at the factory. The Trinamool has also come under pressure from urban citizens who see the protests as counterproductive to the state's efforts to industrialise. Nampa - Reuters |
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