Govt won’t reveal Nano deal for now

Partha Chatterjee,Bengal Industry and Commerce Minister,who had a prolonged discussion on the agreement papers with senior officials of the WBIDC,Commerce and Industries department and also with legal experts,said,“There are legal bindings in the agreement for which he would have to take legal opinion before disclosing the details of the agreement.”

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had yesterday announced after the cabinet meeting that Chatterjee would disclose the agreement to media on Thursday.

However,Chatterjee,who sought more time before the disclosure of the agreement, said the government was consulting Aninda Mitra,the newly appointed Advocate General of the state,on the issue.

‘’Mamata Banerjee gave me the instructions to study the Tata agreement. So I am discussing it with high-level officials of the WBIDC,” he said. Chatterjee,who expressed the hope to make the agreement pubic after taking the legal opinion,did not give any time frame for that.

Incidentally,in September 2006,Chatterjee,the then leader of the Opposition,had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) along with other petitioners,in the Calcutta High Court seeking an order for the disclosure of the agreement. Before that,they had approached the Chief Information Commissioner of the state on the issue.

In 2009,Tata Motors had moved the High Court and advocate Samaraditya Pal,appearing for Tata Motors had raised an objection to the disclosure of the agreement between the company and WBIDC on certain grounds.

Tata advocate had pleaded the disclosure in public of the annexures to the MOA would result in revealing the cost structure of Nano car.

According to the judgment delivered by Justice Dipankar Dutta on January 12,2010,the agreement contained two annexures relating to certain benefits which the Government of Uttarakhand had extended to the petitioners and details about the factory at Singur. One of the annexures also mentioned figures on Nano price,the judgement stated. Justice Dutta had passed an order directing the State Information Commission to proceed in accordance with law.