By Vipin V. Nair
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ashok Ruidas was happy to sell his family's rice fields for a Tata Motors Ltd. factory to build the world's cheapest car. Now, he's facing ruin as the plant may not open.
Tata, India's biggest truckmaker, said yesterday it was considering moving the factory in Singur, West Bengal, because of a 10-day blockade by a local Indian political party. For Ruidas, 47, that would mean the end of his plans to work as a security guard at the plant and his wife's job as a cleaner that's the family's main source of income.
``If Tata doesn't remain in Singur, then we won't get food,'' said Ruidas, as he surveyed the blue and white factory 500 meters across a paddy field. ``There is no gain for us to work in the farms.''
The protests have forced Tata to look for alternative sites, threatening the proposed October launch of the $2,500 Nano car and taking away newly created jobs. More than 80 percent of the 13,103 farmers ousted from their land took government compensation and many say they do not support the blockade led by the Trinamool Congress, the biggest opposition party in communist-controlled West Bengal.
``Issues can be sorted out between the farmers and industrialists, but when one party takes a lead, the matter gets complicated,'' said R.S. Deshpande, director of Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change, a research and training organization in social sciences. ``This issue is politicized beyond repair.''
Work Suspended
Tata Motors suspended construction of the factory that's spread across a 1,000-acre site because of ``continued confrontation and agitation,'' according to a statement last night. The automaker, India's biggest producer of trucks, is preparing a detailed plan to relocate the plant and machinery, jeopardizing the 15 billion rupees ($338 million) invested so far in the factory that can produce 250,000 Nanos annually.
India's federal government said it was prepared to intercede in the dispute.
``Definitely, we will intervene if approached,'' Heavy Industries Minister Santosh Mohan Dev told reporters in New Delhi today. ``Whoever handled this, took it for granted and landed in trouble,'' Dev said, referring to the land dispute.
While the chief of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata Banerjee, says Tata can keep 600 acres of land used by the plant, she's demanding that 400 acres earmarked for component suppliers is restored to rice and jute fields. The party, the second-largest in the state, and its supporters have occupied a four-lane national highway, lining up plastic chairs in front of makeshift stages.
Songs, Slogans
Men, women and children sit through the day, listening to local musicians who take turns to belt out Bengali songs. By evening, more people come in motorcycles and trucks and utility vehicles, shouting slogans against the factory.
Banerjee, 53, who went on a 26-day fast in 2006 to protest the land takeovers, oversees the proceedings, giving orders to hundreds of activists waving her party's green, white and saffron flags, through a microphone from the stage.
``Give us back the 400 acres,'' she shouted from the stage in the Bengali language. ``Give us back our right for livelihood.''
Mina Vul, a 45-year-old illiterate woman who supports Banerjee, said the 0.05 hectare of land where her family used to cultivate potatoes and rice for more than 50 years, was forcibly taken over by the government. Vul, sitting on the party's stage, said she hasn't accepted the money for her land and will not.
`Won't Give Land'
``We won't give our land,'' Vul said through an interpreter who was a party activist at the rally. ``Only educated people will get jobs at the factory. People like us won't.''
The West Bengal government encouraged Tata to open its factory as part of a plan to provide more jobs and make the state more capitalist-friendly. Construction started in January 2007 after a delay of eight months because of earlier protests.
Tata said in May 2006 that the factory would initially employ 2,000 people and eventually 10,000. The company has so far trained 762 workers from the state, the Mumbai-based automaker said yesterday.
West Bengal's ruling communist party, who in the past opposed computers and privatization in India for fear of job losses, needs Tata's project to prove it has changed as it wants to be in tune with the rest of the world, says party leader Biman Bose.
The party's slogan in 1950s and 1960s used to be ``Tata, Birla, be careful, communists are ready,'' said Bose, 68, secretary of the communist party, that has ruled the state for 31 years. ``Now there is no reason for saying that. People will feel we are living in a fool's paradise.''
Farm Factor
As much as 72 percent of West Bengal's population depends on agriculture, higher than the 52 percent national average, while 54 percent of the people earn 1,500 rupees or less a month, says a December study by the Confederation of Indian Industry, an industry lobby group, and KPMG.
Susanta Ruidas, 50, who used to work in the paddy fields, says he stopped about 18 months ago when Tata started constructing the factory.
He now runs a small grocery shop that earns him about 200 rupees a day, selling mostly to the workers of the plant.
``These protests have put my two meals a day at stake,'' says Ruidas, who is illiterate. ``It will be miserable for us if the factory goes from here.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at vnair12@bloomberg.net.
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