Bhattacharjee, Tata and Bandopadhyay

Calcutta, Oct. 23: The Bengal Assembly’s standing committee on commerce and industry will visit Tata Motors’ factory in Pune to learn more about automobile production and the community development the Tatas have often talked about, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said today.

The chief minister made the announcement after a meeting at Writers’ Buildings with panel chairman Sudip Bandopadhyay, who has been invited by Tata Motors’ managing director Ravi Kant to visit the Pune plant.

The request follows a letter the Congress MLA wrote to Ratan Tata, asking him if he would shift his planned small-car plant in Singur to an alternative site in the wake of the controversy over acquisition of farmland.

“The standing committee will visit Pune for a spot study on how an automobile factory runs and the sort of development the area surrounding the factory has witnessed because of the plant’s location,’’ the chief minister said.

However, Trinamul Congress MLA and member of the standing panel Tarak Banerjee said he would not visit the Pune plant. “We are opposed to the very idea of the car unit in Singur. If anybody proposes during the October 27 meeting that a standing committee team be sent, I will protest vehemently,’’ he added.

Bandopadhyay has convened a meeting of the standing committee on October 27 to work out details of the trip.

“The Tatas were shown sites in Kharagpur, Dankuni and Sankrail, which they did not choose as there was no logistical support,” Bhattacharjee said.

“Initially, the Tatas wanted to have their plant in Uttaranchal. Ratan Tata had called me up, saying Kharagpur was not to his liking and asked for Singur. There’s nothing to worry as Tatas will stay here and not go elsewhere. Everything will be done in a transparent manner. Nirupam (Sen) and I have talked to (Trinamul leader) Partha Chatterjee and there shouldn’t be any problem. We have tried our best to avoid fertile agricultural land.”

Medha for Singur

On the day the standing meeting is scheduled to meet, activist Medha Patkar and novelist Mahasweta Devi will visit Singur to hear the grievances of farmers whose land has been acquired. The two have been invited by the Trinamul-backed Krishi Jami Banchao Committee.