In what appears a pre-planned attack, nearly 200 SKJRC supporters tried to raze the boundary wall of the premises near the New Ujjwal Sangha club in Bajemelia.

They set afire two watchtowers inside the premises and clashed with the police. The policemen lobbed 14 rounds of teargas shells. The villagers lobbed bricks, injuring one constable. The clash continued for nearly two hours, even as work in the area went on unhindered.

Hooghly police superintendent Rajiv Mishra said: “A constable has been injured. We prevented the villagers from causing any harm to the wall. Additional forces have been deployed in the area to check such attempts.” The attack coincided with Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s visit to commemorate two years of the agitation against land acquisition in Singur.

Incidentally, this is the same spot where a convoy of Tata Motors’ officials was stopped and heckled exactly two years ago on May 25, 2006 — the first instance of such agitation in Singur.

A few hours later, addressing a public rally at Singur’s Kamarkundu Bharati Maidan, Banerjee asserted that her party will not compromise with the legitimate demand of farmers whose land was forcefully acquired by the government. “I request the state government to give back 400 acres to farmers who have not received the compensation. Our agitation will continue in Singur as people have voted us to power,” the TMC chief said.

Terming today’s incident as an isolated one, she criticised the Singur police for using force to thwart the farmers’ movement. She announced that her party will hold a mammoth rally in Singur on June 14. Alleging that the CPM has resorted to terror tactics in several places after a setback in panchayat polls, she said: “We will counter the terror in a peaceful manner. We have to ensure the end of CPM rule in a peaceful way.”