Digitised zoning of land use map in six districts of Bengal

Digitised zoning of industrial, agricultural and residential land on the existing land use map has been completed in 129 of 341 blocks in six districts in West Bengal to help industry and farmers and prevent a Nandigram or Singur-like situation from developing.
"With the digitised zoning of land use map no one can play the kind of game which led to Nandigram and Singur during the earlier (Left) regime," state's Finance Minister Amit Mitra told reporters here today.
The digitised zoning would help industrialists to identify areas for industry, tourist and service sector hubs including the IT industry and for setting up townships small and big besides identifying wetlands and the bio-environment, Mitra said.

"The 129 blocks where digitised zoning has been completed are in Howrah, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Nadia, East Midnapur and South 24 Parganas districts," Mitra said.
He said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, being the chairperson of the land use board, has taken the initiative for the zoning.
Other districts for digitised zoning in the next phase were Malda, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling district.

The basic idea behind zoning was that industrial and large projects of the state government and the Centre would be located in the appropriate zone without disturbing food security in the state, sources in the Land and Land Reforms department said.

The blockwise land use maps showed single, double and multi crops land, dry and barren land, forest land, metal roads, national highways, state highways, railway network, industrial areas, area under infrastructural development and water bodies.
"This will help entrepreneurs intending to set up industries know the actual infrastructure available at the proposed sites," the sources added.