Advertisement

After months of high decibel protests, agitation and violence, the Bengal government has finally decided to make public its deal with the Tata Motors on the small car factory being set up in Singur.

Industries minister Nirupam Sen will read out the text of the agreement in the assembly on Thursday. But contrary to expectations of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, there will hardly be any scope of discussions on the issue since the minister will reveal the agreement only while participating in the debate on the governor’s speech. He will be the second-last speaker to be followed only by the chief minister.

The industries minister informed Left Front chief whip Syd. Md. Masih on Tuesday that he would simply read out the text of the agreement during his speech on the governor’s address and that no separate time had been allotted for the purpose.

Top CPI(M) sources said on Tuesday that the strategy of not allowing discussions on the state government-Tata Motors agreement was taken to avoid possibilities of embarrassing criticism of the controversial deal. Apart from the Opposition, even a section of Left Front MLAs might not welcome the terms of the agreement.

The chief minister has already given indications on several occasions that land had been offered to the Tata Motors at a heavily discounted rate so that they chose Bengal instead of Uttarakhand to set up the car factory.

The state government had signed the agreement with the Tata Motors vice president R.S. Thakur last Friday. Industries secretary Sabyashachi Sen had given the details of the land-use plan for the small car project but had refused to reveal the financial concessions offered to the car manufacturing giant including price of the land in Singur and the annual lease-rent rate, which would help keep the price of the car within affordable limits.

Earlier, several Left Front constituents - particularly the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc – had raised objections to the veil of secrecy that the government had wrapped around the Tata Motors deal in Singur and CPI state secretary Manju Majumdar had been involved in a verbal spat with the chief minister.

While the government had announced that it would reveal the details of the agreement on the floor of the ongoing budget session of the assembly, the Trinamool Congress had urged that special time be allotted so that the agreement could be thoroughly discussed.

Email author: alokebanerjee@hindustantimes.com