Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Twice-bit Bengal may shy from land buys

Twice-bit Bengal may shy from land buys

West Bengal’s bitter experience of acquiring farmland for industry in the name of public interest could prompt the state government to consider playing the role of facilitator instead of acquirer]

Financial Express
Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 0020 hours IST

Twice-bit Bengal may shy from land buys


KOLKATA, JAN 17: West Bengal’s bitter experience of acquiring farmland for industry in the name of public interest could prompt the state government to consider playing the role of facilitator instead of acquirer.
State commerce secretary Sabyasachi Sen hinted that the government could merely help industrialists and affected farmers reach a consensus, instead of using the law to acquire land.

“In future, we might restrict our role to that of a facilitator and move away from direct acquisition of farmland. The government could bring together industrialists wishing to set up plants and the landowners and help the process of building consensus among the farmers to part with their land. This is one of the models we could follow,”Sen said, adding that this was his personal view.

“Such a model was effectively used to acquire about 300 acre in Barjora and in Sankrail. We have also recently told the Jindals to directly acquire about 500 acre in Salboni,”he said after announcing details of a trade fair being organised by the state and Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

The commerce secretary, however, said the government could not shy away from the acquisition process completely. “In Singur, we had to deal with more than 17,000 scattered land owners to acquire 997 acre. It would have taken ages for a private party to deal with so many,” said Sen.

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