“We will continue in Singur as long as our patience lasts,” said Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant while replying to questions about continuing disturbances at the project site, including cases of assault. He was presenting the company’s first quarter results in Mumbai today. Kant also said: “ultimately the people of Bengal will have to decide if they wanted the project or not.”With incidents of demonstration, threats and intimidation rising sharply, work environment at the Tata Motors project site is deteriorating fast. The worst incident took place on Tuesday night when an engineer of Shapoorji Pallonji — the construction firm engaged by the Tatas — was beaten up by a group of people opposed to the project. The engineer, Manish Khatua, had to be admitted to a nursing home. Work environment at the site is likely to worsen with Mamata Banerjee planning a sit-in from the mid-August demanding that land taken from unwilling farmers be returned to them. Kant said, “There are some elements that are trying to create tension. I think the government will take necessary action, which is required. We are moving ahead, in spite of all these challenges. We have not lost sight of the fact that we want to introduce this vehicle in the market in the October-December quarter.”Asked if the company will meet the deadline, Kant said, “We are trying our best — bending over backwards, working overtime. But, unfortunately the situation is becoming bad and I think ultimately the people of West Bengal have to decide whether they want to have industrialisation in that state or not.”He elaborated: “I think people in Bengal should feel proud that this product is actually going to come out from their state. And it is for them, I think, to build up public opinion.” Tata Motors net dips 30%Rs 200 cr The forex loss suffered by the company in the April-June quarterRs 326 crNet profit in the quarter, down from Rs 467 crore a year earlierRs 6,928 crSales in the the April-June quarter, up from Rs 6,057 crore in a year earlier
