A social worker shows a bottle of kerosene that was used to torch the fence in Singur. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Singur, Dec. 8: A group of people yesterday tried to set on fire a portion of the fence built to mark the land acquired for Tata Motors in Singur.

The protesters doused the fence, at Purbapara in Beraberi, with kerosene before torching it. But villagers rushed to the field and put out the flames. Only some wooden poles were charred.

District police chief Supratim Sarkar said the attackers were “mere miscreants”. “A portion of the fencing was set on fire, but thanks to the efforts of a few villagers, it did not cause any serious damage. The miscreants could not be identified,” he said.

Swarup Bagri, a local CPM worker who has handed over a portion of his land for the Tata factory, was one of those who helped douse the flames. He claimed that the culprits belonged to the Trinamul Congress-backed Krishi Jami Bachao Committee.

“Around 7.30 pm, I saw from my house that half-a-dozen fencing posts were on fire. I could see the outlines of some men with torches but could not identify any of them. By the time I managed to get hold of a few local people and reached the spot, the miscreants had escaped,” Bagri said.

Bagri is also among the CPM workers appointed to help police guard the fencing at night. “For every 1 km of fencing, about 30 workers are deployed from 8.30 pm. The miscreants must have been local residents as they ventured out just before we were to step out,” he said.

Security in and around the land, where the fencing work is almost over, has been beefed up after yesterday’s strike.

Around noon, a rally by CPI (ML) Liberation activists lead by Dipankar Bhattacharya at Baidyabati Chowmatha More prompted the police to wield their lathis. But the baton charge, led by subdivisional officer of Serampore Rabindranath Sarkar, was focused on reporters and photographers, four of whom were wounded. Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal was also arrested during the day.

The district superintendent of police later announced departmental proceedings against the guilty police officers.

In Calcutta, commerce and industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen said Mamata Banerjee’s hungerstrike would not affect the Tatas’ plans.