Kolkata, Nov 5 — West Bengal Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, announced an alternative route for land procurement for new and proposed industrial units, balancing the interests of the investors, landowners and other stakeholders soon after unveiling the new industrial policy for the state
The Chief Minister said that the new land procurement route to be adopted by the state government led by him will be totally different from what was pursued either by the Left Front government or by the Trinamool Congress government.
According to him, the principal operative part of the land procurement policy of the state government led by him will be direct land purchase from the landowners first by the state government and thus create a land bank in the state.
Subsequently, the required land from that land bank will be handed over for the new and proposed industrial project, claimed the Chief Minister.
“The Left Front government followed the policy of forceful land acquisition from landowners for industrial projects, which we are strongly against. The Trinamool Congress played no role in land procurement for new industries, which acted as a negative factor for attracting big-ticket investments. We will not adopt any of these two policies, and instead the state government will directly purchase land from the landowners,” he further claimed.
He also said that besides the proposed land bank to be created from the land directly purchased from the landowners, the state government will also provide land for new industrial projects from the land available at the existing industrial parks in the state and from the clusters of erstwhile encroached land recovered by the state government.
He said that already in the first six months of the new state government led by him, land had already been handed over to 33 business groups.
“We are well settled to meet the land requirement for new industrial units,” the Chief Minister said.
Industry and economic observers too feel that the policy of the state government directly purchasing the land from the landowners and subsequently handing over that land for new industrial units was the need of the hour.
“In a state like West Bengal where the land-holding pattern is extremely fragmented, attracting big ticket investment will never be possible without the state government playing a role in land procurement,” said city-based economist Probir Mukherjee.
He added that forceful land acquisition can be counterproductive, as it happened in the cases of Singur and Nandigram during the Left Front regime.
“The new land policy adopted by the state government will be ideal as it maintains a balance between the interests of investors, land-owners and other stakeholders,” said Mukherjee.