Tata Singur project guards injured

Kolkata, April 2 Five guards were injured, two of them seriously, in a clash Sunday night when they were patrolling the site for the Tata's proposed small car factory at Singur near Kolkata, police said Monday. Three of them were treated and discharged while the two with serious injuries were admitted to a local health centre. 'We have received information that a group of miscreants attacked the night guards at the Tata small car factory site. I don't know whether any formal complaint has been lodged with the local police station. But if anyone has lodged it, the police would definitely look into the matter,' Hooghly Additional Superintendent of Police Asit Pal told IANS. The zonal secretary of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M) of Hooghly district alleged that members of the Singur Krishi Jami Banchao Committee (Save Singur Farmland Committee), which has been protesting the transfer of land for the project, assaulted the night guards and fled the scene. Both the CPI-M and the Committee members have lodged complaints with the Singur police station. 'The CPI-M members are intentionally causing tension in the area. Last night they beat one of our party members, Achita Saha, who is physically challenged, near Gopal Nagar Purbopara. They also ransacked houses of some of our members,' Committee convener Becharam Manna told IANS. On March 18 a portion of the wall of the project site was damaged in an explosion while several landmines were found along the wall. The fencing of the site was damaged a number of times by villagers in the past few months. The Tata Motors has acquired over 997 acres of land in Singur, some 40 km from here in Hoogly district, for its small car project. The take over of the land has triggered a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by civil society groups and parties like the Trinamool Congress.