Break from past to woo investors :::: West Bengal Govt to buy land for industries ::::: "we do not want another Nandigram or Singoor"

The decision — the reverse of the Mamata Banerjee government’s hands-off land policy — underscores the Suvendu administration’s willingness to try out new options to tackle a major hurdle to attracting private investment in West Bengal

The state government will “purchase” land directly and transfer it to private companies for industrial projects, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Saturday, signalling the clearest shift yet in the new BJP administration’s approach to industrialisation.   

“We have accepted the direct land purchase policy of 2013…. With this policy, we are giving land to the BSF, railways and the national highways (authority), and for the new airport,” CM Suvendu said after laying the foundation stone for hosiery major Lux Cozi Group’s new manufacturing unit at Dankuni. 

“Under the land purchase scheme, we will directly purchase land and hand it over to you.”

The CM said his government would not want a repeat of the Singur and Nandigram anti-land-acquisition agitations that ended the Left’s 34-year rule and struck a blow to Bengal’s hopes of industrial revival. 

Ironically, these agitations had powered Suvendu’s meteoric rise in politics — as a key Trinamool leader. 

“Kono industry direct land purchase kore amra chai na arekta Nandigram ba Singur hok,” he said.  (By land purchase directly by companies, we do not want another Nandigram or Singoor). 

“It’s our understanding that this government would not stop private land purchase by industry. However, we will await the official announcement of the land policy, likely before the Puja,” an official with a business chamber said.

The Mamata administration, keen on avoiding the political backlash associated with government-led land acquisition, had largely left the task of buying land to private companies. 

However, once the industries acquired land parcels exceeding the statutory landholding limits, the government required them to navigate a cumbersome process under which the land was formally vested in the state before being leased back for industrial use.

Suvendu's reference to “land purchase policy of 2013” is significant.

The then UPA government had promulgated the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, replacing the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 that had been invoked in Singur for the Tata Nano factory.

However, rather than land purchase, this Act provides for land acquisition — a government process under which the landowners are obliged to give up their land, at a pre-fixed rate, while the administration is obligated to show that the acquisition will serve the public good.

Private landholdings in Bengal tend to be small whereas big industry needs large tracts of contiguous land. So, acquisition tends to work better in the state since it denies the landowner the right to refuse.

Mamata’s government never implemented the 2013 Act because it was against land acquisition in principle.

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