Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Oct. 20: With the bitter taste of Singur and Nandigram over land acquisition lingering, the state government has finally decided to prepare a database for non-agricultural, vested land available for setting up of industrial projects in each district. In a bid to expedite the allotment of such vested land for industry the chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has also set up a three member committee headed by the chief secretary. The chief minister seem to have taken a leaf out of Mr Narendra Modi's industrially “vibrant” Gujarat and took steps to expedite the process of allotment of land, ironically, on the day (3 October), Mr Ratan Tata broke the unfortunate news of pulling out from Singur. The meeting was attended by the state commerce and industries minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, the panchayat and rural development minister, Dr Suryakanta Mishra and the land and land reforms minister, Mr Abdur Rezzak Mollah. The committee headed by chief secretary, Mr AK Deb would also include the principal secretary to the chief minister as well as the land reforms commissioner. The committee would vet the proposals received from various department for setting up projects on non-agricultural, vested land which would then be sent to the land and land reforms department for final settlement. “This would expedite the process of allotment of land for major projects which have been facing unnecessary delay,” said an official in Writers’ Buildings. In case of competing departments vying for the same plot, the committee would also resolve the issue. The demand for forming a land bank has been a long standing demand of the Opposition led by the Trinamul Congress but the state government had backed out citing difficulties since most land is in private hands. This database on vested, non-agricultural land is at least a step towards the same direction. In addition, henceforth the land and land reforms department would also give exemptions from land ceiling to projects under recommendation from the commerce and industries department. Since the amendment to the West Bengal land Reforms Act, 1955 is still lying with the standing committee of Legislative Assembly after objections from Left Front partners, projects other than mill, factory, tea gardens and townships require exemption from the L&LR department. The decisions taken by the chief minister have also in a sense, clipped the wings of the land and land reforms department which use to deal with all these issues on its own. It has also been decided to fix timeframe for conversion and mutation of land since this is also causes considerable delay for industrial projects. The notification for this major shift in policy would be issued soon. (END) Source : The Statesman
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