Kolkata: Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari made it clear on Monday that his administration would never forcibly acquire land from farmers but would, instead, purchase land and then hand it over to industries, following the model adopted by states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.Adhikari, speaking during the inaugural ceremony of a Rs 4,000-crore integrated steel project in Purulia’s Raghunathpur, which coincided with the first 100 days of the BJP administration in Bengal, added that employment generation — and not quantum of investment — would be the criterion for incentives for industries. The Amit Metaliks project in Purulia will employ 5,000 people.Adhikari slammed both the Left Front and the Trinamool regimes for their land policies and said his administration would strike a middle path. “Land was acquired forcefully at gunpoint during the LF’s term in office; this was a bad practice for any democracy. The Trinamool regime of the last 15 years followed a completely hands-off policy and industrialists were asked to purchase land on their own. You cannot expect industry to come,” he added.Bengal, now, will have a land purchase policy along with a land-pooling policy. “This approach is successful in many states and will be successful in Bengal as well,” Adhikari said, elaborating that the state would buy land from farmers and develop it for industries. Land-pooling, say economists, is a voluntary industrial development model where private landowners (may be farmers) contribute a portion of their land for infrastructure development and, in lieu, receive smaller, fully serviced plots of significantly higher market value elsewhere; this avoids both forced displacement and legal delays.Adhikari added that the new industry policy would ensure that investments above Rs 100 crore would not require “local permissions”.Amit Metaliks chairman and managing director Amit Singh said the proposed project with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes would be ready in 1,000 days. The plant, along with other products, will also manufacture automobile-grade steel.
