OBC leader detained for trying to lock up Tata Nano plant

Ahmedabad, Feb 23 (IANS) Gujarat OBC SC/ST Ekta Manch convenor Alpesh Thakore was on Thursday detained by police as he was on his way to Sanand to lock down the Tata Nano car plant as per as his threat.

Thakore was intercepted by the city police from the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway as he started with hundreds of his followers in a calvacade of cars. He had threatened to put locks at the Tata Nano plant on the issue of not providing adequate employment to local youth.

He had announced last month that if local youth were not given preference in employment, they would lock down all the industrial units operating on government land, on land facilitated by the state government or those who had received financial support from the government.

Thakore claimed that Gujarat has over 60 lakh unemployed youth, including 14 lakh educated unemployed. "Gujarat government is giving relief of thousands of crores to companies like Tata but not forcing them to ensure that 85 per cent jobs go to Gujaratis," he had said.

With Tata Nano having received land from the state and a soft loan to the tune of Rs 39,000 crore, Thakore had threatened to begin his agitation by locking down the Tata Nano plant at Sanand, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, first.

Though Thakore had earlier claimed that he had support of people from 50 villages in the region, the state administration on its part said that it had received representations from 35 villages and 69 industry associations from Sanand region to stop Thakore from any such misadventure.

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