The select batch of educated youth, which was trained to work as apprentices in the Tata plant at Singur, is due to be absorbed as part of the rehabilitation package for farmers. “We are ready to go anywhere —- Pantnagar or Pune —- to roll out the small car. Our bosses have told us that some of us will have to go outside Bengal to other Tata factories. But they have not given us the exact date,” said Bikas Pakhira, one of the youths working at the plant.

Bikas’ family has given up a 34 decimal plot for the plant in Singur. Having passed his Higher Secondary examinations, Bikas was the first local who was trained at the Ramakrishna Mission and thereafter went to the Tata factory in Pune for the advance training. He used to work in the engine shop as an apprentice until recently when the authorities decided to freeze the plant following the agitation by Mamata Banerjee.

Bikas, who will take the examination of the National Council for Vocational Training, is hopeful of becoming a permanent employee of the factory. “We are with the Tatas. After my husband got a job in the factory our lifestyle has changed. Mamata Banerjee is blocking the development of the area. We are hopeful that my husband will be absorbed soon and me and my two children are ready to go anywhere with the Tatas,” Bikas’ wife Jogomaya said.

Pradip Dey (30), a resident of Joymollah village, could not get a job despite being a graduate till the Tatas came and now he is with them. “We gave up our 2.1 acre and got around Rs 18 lakh in compensation. Besides, I got a job. It changed my family’s lifestyle. Farming is not profitable for us anymore and I failed to get a job elsewhere. I do not want the Tatas to leave Singur. But if they do that we are ready to move with them,” said Dey, who is an apprentice in the gear box assembly unit of the engine shop at the Nano factory.

“Apart from Rs 1,700 as stipend, we got uniforms, free daily breakfast and lunch at the site,” Dey added.Dey’s father, Tarak Chandra Dey, who is a retired teacher, said: “I want him to leave Singur and go wherever the Tatas decide to manufacture the car. I consider my child lucky that he has got such a chance.”