Bengal woos promoters to house the poor

The West Bengal government plans to involve promoters to develop housing for the economically weaker sections of the society in the state.

"We plan to encourage real estate developers to provide housing for the economically weaker sections in their upcoming projects and given that the profit margins are quite high from such a project, this should be sustainable," said chief minister Budhdhadeb Bhattacharjee.

"We would try to implement the same for government developed housing projects, and are planning to make it mandatory for real estate developers," he added.

He was speaking on the occasion of the foundation stone laying ceremony of a multi-storeyed complex being developed under the public private partnership (PPP) model by the Ganaudyog Bazar Unnayan & Service (GBUS) Co-operative Society Ltd and the Fort Group.

It will rehabilitate the evicted shop owners who were displaced due to widening of the Raja S C Mallick Road and also house a multi-specialty clinic.

The GBUS Co-op Society has been working on on the widening of the roads in the stretches of Jadavpur to Sukanto Setu in close association with the state government.

"Land acquisition for development projects is a process that cannot be reversed. But, we surely need to provide for alternate livelihood options for those displaced in the process," the chief minister said.

Dabur India Ltd was approached by the the co-op society when they planned to embark on a real estate project on the land where one of their warehouses once stood on Raja S C Mallick Road.

The society had urged the company to come up with some space to rehabilitate the evicted shop-owners. After an initial tussle, the company agreed to offer two bighas on that stretch to the society.

"We bought the land from them for a nominal price of Re 1", said Chandana Ghosh Dastidar, secretary, GBUS Co-op Society. "Then we entered into an understanding with the Fort Group who will develop the six-storeyed building that will house the shop owners", she added.

The Fort group will also open a 100 bed multi-specialty clinic that will offer treatment on cardiology, nephrology, pulmonary rheumatology, and infectious diseases.

"The clinic will be equipped to provide services like maxillofacila surgery and vascular surgery. Plans are on to create a special diabetes management cell", said Vivek Kathotia, chairman and managing director, Fort Projects.

The clinic will be open to the economically weaker sections of local community and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

KMC has waived the corporation tax for such a project.

"We are not aiming at a development model delves into infrastructure and industrial development without being employment intensive or beneficial to the masses," said Bhattacharjee.

"The people on the streets should be benefited from development", he remarked.