Calcutta Sept. 26: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has written to Ratan Tata requesting him to wait for the political storm over Singur to subside, in a last-ditch bid to save the small-car project.

The Bengal chief minister wrote soon after the state cabinet adopted a resolution yesterday urging the company not to abandon the project and appealing to the Trinamul Congress to end its agitation.

“The letter represents a reasoned appeal from the chief minister to the Tata Group chairman,” a source in the CPM and Writers’ Buildings told The Telegraph this evening.

Bhattacharjee has appa- rently appended the cabinet resolution to his letter to stress his government’s “all-out” support for the project, stalled because of Mamata Banerjee’s demand that 300 acres be returned to farmers from within the project area.

“We are expecting either a face-to-face or some kind of communication between the two to take place soon, once Mr Tata returns from abroad,” the source said, but declined to add when the meeting was likely.

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb had earlier in the day — 2.30pm — said a meeting had been “scheduled between the state government and the Tatas on Sunday”.

Asked if the Tatas had replied to the letter, Deb said: “No reply has come…and I don’t know whether it will be sent by them. However, there is a meeting scheduled between the state government and the Tatas on Sunday.”

Asked if it would be a one-to-one between the chief minister and Tata, Deb said: “I cannot say that at the moment.”

A few hours later, around 6pm, Deb asked while leaving Writers’ Buildings: “When did I say there will be a meeting on Sunday?”

The denial sparked speculation that the Tatas may not have agreed to the meeting.

The chief minister evaded a direct reply, saying: “You will come to know in due course of time.”

It was left to industries minister Nirupam Sen to clarify that the meeting could not be finalised as the Tatas had not sent a confirmation.

“The chief minister had written a letter to the Tatas. As for the meeting, we haven’t got any sort of confirmation from them. There is a possibility of a meeting on Sunday but, as of now, we cannot say anything more than that. If the meeting is held, the venue will be Writers’ Buildings,” he said.

According to an official of the chief minister’s secretariat, the government contacted the Tatas several times through the day to request Ratan Tata’s presence on Sunday.

“We wanted the meeting with Ratan Tata on Sunday as the government didn’t want to delay matters but rather sit and assure the company that safety and security would be provided for running the factory. Initially, it seemed they (the Tatas) were ready to talk but they later informed us that they would have to discuss the issue and wouldn’t take a hasty decision. They kept changing their stand and, hence, we could not finalise the meeting,” the official added.

Although the chief minister has asked the Tatas for some time to get a grip on the ground situation in Singur, the government knows it will be tough to hold back the company, which appears to have begun the process of relocation.

A senior minister said even Trinamul’s withdrawal of agitation might not help.

“Now the big problem is the Tatas’ approach to the issue,” the minister said. “Had they not started taking heavy machinery out of the Singur project, we could have expected the chief minister’s lobbying to yield some positive results. Let’s see what comes out of the current attempt.”

The CPM state secretariat, which meets every Friday, took stock of the Singur setback. The chief minister and the industries minister briefed the party leadership on the situation.

Although the leadership acknowledges that the project is slipping out of the state, it has asked the government to continue its efforts to persuade the Tatas to take a “reasoned decision” without losing sight of the 11,000-odd farmers who have parted with their land for the project.