Tata bid to shield 'secret'

Calcutta, Dec. 2: Tata Motors moved a writ petition in the high court today challenging the state information commissioner’s decision to read out the entire agreement between the company and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) for the Singur plant in an open court.

The company’s lawyer, Samaraditya Pal, told the court: “If the entire agreement is made public, the concept of trade secret will be hard hit.”

In mid-September, Tata Motors had moved court against the WBIDC’s decision to post parts of the agreement on its website following the commissioner’s order.

The court had then asked the commissioner to re-hear the case and allow Tata Motors to be a party to it.

The company had submitted the agreement to the commissioner in a sealed envelope for its hearing, but the official decided to read it out in its court, prompting the Tatas to move the high court. They also challenged the Right to Information Act while demanding a stay on the decision.

The case will be heard again on Friday.

Farmer suicide in Singur

Singur, Dec. 2: A sharecrop- per who had apparently lost work after nearly 1,000 acres were acquired for Tata Motors hanged himself today.

Bholanath Patra’s wife Shyamali said the family had six cottahs outside the factory site, but that was too little. “After he lost his job, we found it difficult to arrange two square meals a day. He started working in a cold storage unit but his health began to fail,” said Shyamali, a mother of two in Bajemelia.

Hooghly superintendent of police Rajeev Mishra said the 42-year-old farmer “was suffering from depression because of failing health”.

Bholanath was a Save Farmland Committee member during the height of the anti-Tata agitation. “Around noon, he locked himself in the bathroom. When he did not come out even after repeated knocking, I called villagers,” said Shyamali.

Mamata crop

Mamata Banerjee told a rally in Singur today that the Save Farmland Committee would cultivate paddy on the land acquired for the Tatas.

Sources : The Telegraph