By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: Availability of land to set up industries appears to be a stumbling block in the path of West Bengal’s first BJP-run state government. This is an issue two previous state governments have found to be insoluble.
Efforts to restore West Bengal’s old industrial glory were foiled for the lack of sufficient space to set up new units. Be it during the regime of CPI(M)-dominated Left Front government or tenure of Trinamool Congress dispensation which replaced it, the state had no takers among the captains of industry who are only too aware of this problem
Of course, it did not prevent the top notch industrialists from trooping into the annual business conclaves and mouth platitudes about the improved business environment of West Bengal. But .months after their departure, the state did not find itself to be a major business destination.
Land is scarce in West Bengal. Apprehensive of an upsurge of public resentment which the state witnessed post Singur and Nandigram, every state government is chary of converting agricultural land into industrial plots. The next best alternative is using the plots of the closed Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in the state.
That this plan of action is not a pipe dream is borne out of the fact that it has found mention in state finance minister, Swapan Dasgupta’s budget speech. Making his maiden budget speech, he said that the government would “endeavour to develop a comprehensive land bank by identifying and reclaiming industrial land lying unutilised with public sector undertakings and other government entities”.
This is not a road less travelled as the Left Front government tried it in 2004. It engaged the agency Webcom to study unused industrial land. Of these, plots, more than 11,000 were found to be located in Jalpaiguri while it numbered more than 8,000 in Darjeeling, mostly inside tea gardens. Much of the rest has been encroached upon.
Coming to power in 2011, the Trinamool government in 2013 gave it another try. The PwC was engaged by the TMC dispensation. It identified 20,000 acres of unused land across more than 300 sick PSUs. But none of these parcels of land exceeded 500 acres. Most of these units were closer to 100 acres. This made them too fragmented and not big enough to attract big ticket investment.
Big investments need plots sized about 700 to 800 acres. Had the identified plots been contagious, it would have been ideal destination for big industrial units but being fragmented they did not make the grade. The 2013 count is outdated now. The number of unused plots is higher now as more sick units have been shut.
With an eye on job creation. before 2021 Assembly polls, the TMC dispensation amended West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 to let owners of closed factories lease their plots to new investors. It targeted 11,000 acres including some 1000 acre plots.
After this policy announcement, there were no owners coming forward. The Land and Land Reforms department found that almost all the closed units were under Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). It barred them from leasing their land. The others were in no better position having mortgaged their land to banks.
The present state government is in the dark about the availability of land for big industrial projects. Industrial projects are being announced by it without mentioning its position on the availability of land bank. Fragmented plots of land stood in the way of industrial turnaround of West Bengal. In a way, this is a problem which has vexed three successive governments of divergent ideology.
Land acquisition continues to be one of the most sensitive issues of the state. The BJP government has announced that it will bring out a comprehensive land policy without stating whether it will include provisions of land acquisition. Land is acquired in West Bengal for railways and national highway extension. But such acquisitions are done by respective Union ministries and not the state government.
Grievances, if any are not directed towards the state government. Post Nandigram and Singur, the state government has shied away from acquisition. Coming to power riding the crest of the Singur and Nandigram agitations, Trinamool Congress had an anti-acquisition policy. The BJP has no such baggage.
The BJP’s poll promises include taking West Bengal to the heights of industrial development which the state once occupied. To achieve this end, it cannot sit upon the land acquisition issue for too long. (IPA Service)
