Farmers march through police barricades near Singur

SINGUR: Police used batons and teargas to disperse a large group of farmers, who turned violent and tried to violate prohibitory orders by marching to Singur, where work has begun on the Tata Motors' small car project.

Officials said clashes broke out when members of the farmer's committee led by the opposition Trinamool Congress tried to proceed to Singur by breaking barricades put up by police at Maheswarpur and Dankuni on Durgapur Expressway and at Nalikul in Hooghly district.

People protesting the acquisition of farm land for the project turned violent and clashed with police. Officials said policemen carried out a baton-charge and burst a few rounds of teargas at Toll Plaza in Dankuni.

Trinamool Youth Congress chief Madan Mitra alleged he and some of his party's supporters were injured in an 'unprovoked' police baton-charge on 'peaceful' protestors at Toll Plaza.

In Kolkata, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said officials were "collecting details of the incident at Dankuni".

Dredging of the Julkia canal at the project site in Singur began on Saturday with 500 people being engaged by Tata Motors for this purpose. Another 500 people were employed for the work on Sunday, officials said.

Work on building a road at the site has also begun, they said.

Tata Motors' senior manager (Human Resources) SR Suryabangshi and general manager Dilip Sengupta supervised the work.