Tata's educate the people of Singur. What have you done Mamata?

Singur Trainees eligible for Employment on successful completion of Training

We spoke to Tata Motors and what more can you expect Mamata? Its easy to crticise. Can you even give employment to 1 person Mamata ? ?


The Tata Motors' operation in Singur is expected to create employment in excess of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs within the plant, amongst vendors and service providers in the vicinity. The company, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and the West Bengal Government have jointly undertaken several initiatives to train youth, from the singur villages. When contacted, Tata Motors spokesperson said that " if they successfully clear the training and related tests, they will become eligible for employment."



The Youth from Singur villages who are being trained had earlier registered with the WBIDC to improve their employability.

This exercise on training/improvement in skills for employability started in December 2006 with a focus on ITI-trained youth from the Singur villages. About 36 such youth were found and called for tests, and 17 from among them have been selected and placed in Tata Motors' Jamshedpur facility for extensive 6-month training. Tata Motors has been providing them with hostel facilities and also a monthly stipend during the 6-month period. On successful completion of the training programme and other related tests, they will be eligible for employment in the Small Car project in Singur.


On April 25, 2007, taking such initiatives forward, the Government of West Bengal's Department of Technical Education & Training (DTET), the WBIDC and Tata Motors had signed a memorandum of understanding for an even more extensive training programme for a larger number of Singur residents. The programme includes a 9-month course for freshers, and a 6-month course for those Singur residents whom the WBIDC had earlier begun to train at the Ramakrishna Shilpa Mandir, of the Ramakrishna Mission (Belur Math), Howrah District of the state. To begin with, this initiative is benefitting about 340 individuals, with various educational qualifications.

These two programmes are being run at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Howrah Homes, Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Hooghly, and the Ramakrishna Shilpa Mandir. The syllabus has been prepared by the Directorate of Industrial Training in consultation with Tata Motors and approved by the State Council of Vocational Training (SCVT), West Bengal. The expenses for the programme at the two ITIs are being equally funded by the WBIDC and Tata Motors. Tata Motors will help the ITI's, where the youth are under training, with equipment and also train, if necessary, the trainers. The expenses for the programme at the Ramakrishna Shilpa Mandir is being fully borne by Tata Motors. WBIDC is paying a monthly stipend to these trainees.

After completing the programme, the trainees will undertake a test to be conducted by the DTET, and successful candidates will receive the State Council of Vocational Training (SCVT) certificate from the DTET. These successful candidates will then undergo a 15-month hands-on training at the Tata Motors plant to endow them with multi-skill abilities and enhance their employability. On successful completion of the training programme, they too will be eligible for employment in the Small Car project in Singur.

Arrangements will also be made to impart relevant training to other individuals, in the WBIDC list, appropriate to their educational background and skills and based on a selection process.

Mamata and her stupid arguments

Singur farmers will not "Chew Cars"

The tantrum of Indian politicians is not a new phenomenon, but surely Mamata Bannerjee takes the cake. It is indeed sad, that such hue and cry has been made for a non-starter issue dubbed “Singur”. Means, have we lost our navigation? Why are we going off course? Does anybody disagree to industrialization? Don’t we all know that if our country has to keep on growing and maintain the current growth rate, then we need to go all out and set up more and more industries? So, what is it that Mamata is trying to do? She seems just hell bent to rouse a rabble and thereby create a vote bank for her. For her own petty selfish gains, she is willing to sacrifice better future of thousands of farmers and their families.

Mamata and her logic defy any and all sense. It certainly is a well thought out plan, or why else did the Trinamool Youth Congress take out a procession demanding return of land of farmers at Singur on 18^th, when it was known that on 19^th the Govt. would announce the compensation package for the so called effected farmers? Clearly, Mamata had in her mind to refuse straightaway any package that the Govt. was to announce. Undoubtedly, the package is - as described by the patriarch Jyoti Basu – “This is the best package in the country”. The announced package is black and white and not a portion exists which sounds garbled or gives the impression of hidden mines. Just to encapsulate what the package is and how it benefits all, I summarize it below:

• Farmers who are elderly & directly dependent on tilling land cannot be considered for training for employment. Govt is considering putting up shops etc in the 47.11 acre of land that they have at their disposal in Singur and giving it to those farmers as alternate means of sustenance.

• 350 nos. of project affected youth are being trained at different ITIs for 6 and 9 months. These youth will get direct employment at the mother plant

• 150 more such youth will be selected for training in Ramakrishna Mission. The selection process will start from Sunday 24^th June.

• To train, as “Test Drivers” 100 people will be given training at Hooghly Motor Training School.

• 40 Ladies have already been trained in sewing at Beraberi High School, who will make uniforms and gloves for the small car plant personnel.

• NIIT at Salt Lake, Kolkata has already trained 40 men & women for 2 months. WBIDC has borne expenses of such training. 30 of them have already got jobs.

• 40 men & women have also been trained at NIIT on Hardware and some of them have already got jobs.

• 25 nos. of ladies have been trained in cooking and have formed canteens. More women are expected to join for such training and will open up more canteens.

• 50 people will be trained in gardening and landscaping

• Govt aims to make people self-dependant and entrepreneurs by making them become suppliers of vegetables, detergents etc that will have huge requirement on a daily basis once the project comes up.

• Government will also have an arrangement with Mother Diary for supply of milk by the local villagers

• 400 women will be trained on making cable & circuit board required for the car lant. Pune model training will be followed. Initially 100 women will be trained.

Such a well thought out package is the very first of its kind. The elderly have been taken care of, the youth have been looked after, the women too have been handed economic freedom and the bright future of the Singur farmers ensured.

But then follows the bluffmaster Mamata. It is obvious that Mamata never heard of the saying – First think, and then speak. Mamata doesn’t even bother to think or for that matter to even hear. She gives instant stupid reactions. And that’s exactly what she did after the package was announced. She just went ahead and rejected outright the package announced. Her ground of refusal was a clutter of baseless allegations bereft of any sense or sensibility. She really defines the Height of stupidity and to recap her ludicrous logic:

• "It is a rotten package and a deal to give passage to the Tatas in Singur," She claimed that the Tatas were fronting the Singur project while a foreign company had equity in it. "There is equity of a foreign company in the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur,"

• We don't need driving schools. Let them train their own people. Farmers don't need to drive cars. They know how to drive tractors and till the land.

• What will we do with cars? Do you think farmers will chew cars for dinner?

Now Mamata, what is your source of the first allegation - that a foreign company had equity in the project and that the Tatas were merely fronting it? First if you do have any such information, why didn’t you share it with the people and the media on day 1 itself? Secondly, if what you say is true, then can we have the exact details - the name of this foreign company and its share in the project? As per your statement, it sounds like – this foreign company owns the project since you say – Tatas were fronting the project, thereby ownership obviously is of the foreign company. And Mamata, if all this is true, then why did you hide such vital information from the public all this time, and moreover why are you giving a show of spilling the beans at this point in time? Or is it that questions of national interest and security concerns are secondary to your personal vote bank politics?

As for your second rationale – I would describe it by way of a famous Bengali saying – “Even a donkey would laugh” You say – Farmers don’t need to drive cars. Why Mamata, - are farmers not good enough to own and drive cars? Do we smell here a casteist flavor of politics? Is it like, – farmers like scheduled castes should never prosper, will never ever be able to own cars and so why should they even learn driving? Well for starters Mamata, if the farmers learnt driving, it will add to their skill set and provide an additional means of earning a livelihood.

Going ahead - you reiterate – They know how to drive tractors and till the land. Mamata, do you have any idea as to how many farmers in West Bengal own tractors? And the farmers, who have tractors, are of a different scale and unfortunately the Singur farmer never fell in that class. The land owning has to be huge, huge to make it economically viable to own and maintain a tractor. It seems your idea of farmers has its roots in the cowboy ranchers as shown in Hollywood movies. Mamata, just to enlighten you - most Indian farmers rent out tractors before sowing and get their land tilled.

And last but not the least - Do you think farmers will chew cars for dinner? No we don’t think farmers will chew cars for dinner, but yes we do think that the day the Tata car factory is operational, the farmer is employed and owns his car, that day the farmer will not have to think what he is going to chew for dinner. That day he will surely have his hot piping dinner.

18th june - Singur gets freedom from Mamata and her antics

18th June – Last day of Mamatas charade of fighting for people of Singur

Its V-day for the people of Singur, and as per sources the villagers are celebrating. On the other hand it’s a sad and glum TMC camp and office. When reporters today reached the party office, they found it empty and none of the floating junior party members had any answer as to where their so called firebrand leader and her close coterie were. The media later found out that a party meeting of the high command was on; in some unconfirmed venue, and that the party was deliberating how to overcome the current situation - which has cropped up post the patriarch Jyoti Basu made a media statement as to the Singur settlement.

We attach below the news that appeared post Jyoti Basus’ meeting and briefing the media:

Alternative package best in country: Basu
Kolkata, Jun 15 (PTI) Veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu was today
all praise for the alternative compensation package prepared by state
Industry Minister Nirupam Sen for the "unwilling" farmers whose land
have been acquired for the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur.
"This is the best thing in the country," Basu told reporters
after attending the party's state secretariat meeting here.
The package, however, would be disclosed by Sen after hearing
of a land acquisition case in the High Court on June 18, he said.
Asked if Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee found the
package unacceptable, he said it can't be helped. "Is she aware of
the package?" he asked.
The West Bengal government had yesterday turned down the Trinamool
Congress' demand that the land of the unwilling farmers at Singur
be returned but said an alternative proposal was being worked out
by the state government.
After a meeting with Banerjee on June 4 to find a solution to
both Singur and Nandigram problems, Basu had said that her demands
should be looked into by the state government. Both had then expressed
confidence on reaching an amicable settlement of the issues.
Basu veered around to the state government stand that the land
for Tata project was already acquired and that Banerjee's demand
for return of land to unwilling farmers could not be conceded.
"During my meeting with her, she told me that there is a land
measuring 600 acre oppositite to the Tata site. But on inquiry I
found that it is private property," Basu said responding to a question
by a reporter.

So Mamata, what’s your next trick going to be?