It was two years ago in September 2006 that police were first deployed in Singur to maintain law and order, even as a fence was being constructed at the Tata small car factory site.

While land-related agitations in other parts of the country, including Nandigram, have had fatalities, there has been no casualty despite protests over the last two years.

Injuries have been kept to a bare minimum.

“We got information beforehand about a secret meeting held in the villages. We also came to know what the protestors were planning. We would be ready for them even before they embarked on their secret mission,” said a senior officer of Hooghly district.

Citing an example, a senior officer said Trinamool activists Becharam Manna and some others were arrested when a peaceful procession began to turn violent in August 2007.

“We had information that the leaders had decided that they would attempt to break the wall of the factory. We had deployed more policemen than usual and were ready to handle a violent protest,” said the officer.

The credit goes to the police for building up credible sources. A senior officer associated with Singur from the beginning said that the government had distributed a generous amount of money to create a network of informers.

“We had penetrated deep within the agitating villagers. We were allocated more money for the purpose,” said the officer.

“Apart from the districts affected by Left-wing extremists, the allocation is between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per month. We got more than Rs 40,000 a month for building sources in Singur,” said an officer.

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