Ishita Ayan Dutt: Has the land problem been solved?

MY WEEK

Sajjan Jindal makes the most unexpected announcement of giving free shares to land-losers in his steel project at Salboni in West Midnapore. Clearly I need to visit Salboni to see how the farmers feel about it.

The heat is oppressive and the very thought of a 160 km drive to Salboni seems daunting, that too at 6:30 in the morning. But how wrong I am. The roads are fantastic and we reach in just two hours and fifteen minutes. What follows is another surprise. The mood in Salboni is upbeat, a far cry from my last field trip which happened to be Nandigram.

In Salboni, people are quite happy to give up their land. Not surprising, given that most of it is barren. The land-losers are overwhelmed by the free shares being offered. The people I meet at the gram panchayat office are discussing how the project will change their lifestyle, for the better! What a contrast from Nandigram, where subsistence agriculture was also the mainstay and yet no one wanted to give up their piece of land.

In fact, the block development officer has told the Jindal officials that villagers won't spare them if, for some unforeseen reason, the project does not come up! The acres and acres of barren land explains just one part of the puzzle. Perhaps the proximity to Kolkata also has something to do with it.

SUNDAY
One would have thought that after a day out at Salboni, and early in the morning at that, I'd be allowed to catch up on some extra sleep. But that doesn't happen. I wake up at 8 to the loud ring of my mobile phone. And I keep getting calls after that. Some of the reactions to my Salboni story are complimentary, some are not.

It will be unfair not to print the varying reactions. In any case, I've had to sacrifice valuable sleeping time hearing people out, so it's an even better idea. We decide to run a story on what becomes a heated debate on most of the local Bengali television channels by the evening.

FRIDAY
The story that began last week with Jindal's announcement of the compensation package has now become bigger. But since by now, everyone has expressed their opinion on the free shares, the story's probably running to a close.

But more surprises are on their way. What is expected to be just another initial public offering press conference, where almost everything has already been announced in roadshows held elsewhere, turns out to be a bag of revelations. DLF says it will offer alternative land to land-losers, something that has not been announced in Bengal before by any other company! And this is apart from a firm commitment on jobs.

I suppose a company whose raw material happens to be land (a land bank of 10,255 acres), should know how to handle it best. Or should we ask the farmers? Does that warrant a visit to Dankuni?