Land dilemmas

A 'hands off' policy by the govt is not enough

The economic future of West Bengal has received a second major blow with the state government cancelling a major information technology project that was to come up on the outskirts of Kolkata, one in which anchor investors like Infosys and Wipro had been allotted land. This comes after the cancellation of the Nano project of Tata Motors, which ended the state’s attempt to emerge as an automobile hub. Both the projects have come to grief for the same reason — farmers’ disaffection over losing their land to proposed new projects. In the case of the Nano project at Singur, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee led a successful agitation against state acquisition of fertile agricultural land. The proposed central land acquisition legislation, which would have allowed the government to acquire the balance provided private promoters first acquired 70 per cent of the land required for a project, was also subsequently stalled as Ms Banerjee was opposed to even this limited role for the government.

Ironically, the land for the IT project was not being acquired directly by the government from the farmers but by a private developer who was to hand over a part of the land to the government for the IT project and retain the rest for the development of a resort, spa and housing. Things boiled over when a shootout over the outcome of a local football match (of all things) led to the destruction of the Vedic Village resort. Farmers who felt that they had been cheated out of their land by musclemen of private promoters, who enjoyed the support of local political leaders, gave vent to their anger. Unlike in Singur, Ms Banerjee has not been upfront in crying foul. She has made a token protest at a single public meeting in which she has promised that she will not protect her own partymen if they are found to be involved. This suggests that the nexus between private entities and local politicians stretches across party lines. The underlying politics goes deeper. The abruptness with which the West Bengal government has cancelled the project is being interpreted as chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s attempt to get at some of his opponents within his own CPI(M) who are reportedly part of the promoter-politician nexus in the IT project area.

Where does industrialisation go from here? While some of the elements of the present episode are peculiar to West Bengal (which has a high land-man ratio, so that buying even small tracts of land for industry displaces many people), similar disputes have erupted elsewhere. A proposed expressway from Bangalore to its new international airport has not been built because of a plethora of court cases. Private interests which had acquired land in anticipation of the project have reportedly been pressurising the Karnataka government to change the alignment of the road to suit them. It seems that the government’s keeping out of land acquisition for private projects may not be enough, because a variety of other rackets can thrive. Among other things, payment for land could be part lump sum (which can easily get spent) and part annuity, so that a minimum income is assured for those who lose their land.