5 injured, Patkar held, Singur tense

NO TATA TO PROTESTS: Police resorted to lathicharge and firing of tear gas shells.

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Kolkata: At least five persons were injured and trains and traffic were blocked in several parts of West Bengal during protests against the Tata Motors car project in Singur.

At least five persons were injured when police fired rubber bullets when teargas shells and lathicharge failed to disperse farmers protesting against land acquisition for the project at Singur in Hooghly district.

Social activist Medha Patkar and a Trinamool Congress MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya were arrested when they tried to take out a march. At least 5,000 police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in Singur for the fencing of the 997-acre plot for the project.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia alleged: "The police were attacked with acid bombs and arrows and many of us, including women cops, were injured.

Singur Krishijami Bachao Committee convenor Becharam Manna rejected the police’s allegations and claimed "our women were assaulted and children beaten up by the cops. Everyone was hit with batons."

MLA Bhattacharya alleged about 1,000 policemen swooped down on farmers and beat them up.

Police stopped Patekar, chief of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, at Dankuni near Singur, where she was going to join the protesters.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally on Thursday, asked her party MLAs to head for Singur.

Banerjee, who was in Islampur in north Bengal for an election campaign, asked party workers to take to streets and block rail tracks. She too is headed for Singur.

Trinamool Congress workers set fire a guard's cabin of a local train, damaged vehicles and set up rail and road blocks across West Bengal.

Trains were blocked on Sheoraphuli-Tarakeswar, Barasat-Hasnabad sections and at Singur and Diara stations. Police chased away Trinamool workers who pelted stones on buses at Haripal in Hooghly district.

In Kolkata, Trinamool supporters set blocked the Hazra Road, Rashbehari Avenue, Jadavpur and other areas. A partial bandh was organised in Asansol and Bardhman against the project.

Speaking at a function, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said that the state needed to demarcate industrial and farm lands

"A full map of West Bengal will be prepared where villages will be demarcated for agricultural, industrial and urbanisation purposes. This work will be done in collaboration with all the parties including the opposition," he said.

With inputs from Aniek Paul