The Hindu Business Line : Learning from mistakes

The series of miscalculations that had plunged West Bengal into a crisis in recent months over the acquisition of land at Singur for the Tata small car project and the aborted chemical hub at Nandigram were of the State Government's own making. In its blind rush to grab the tempting offers of investment dangled by industrialists and go in for the acquisition of whatever land was to their liking, regardless of the use to which it was being put and the families dependent on it, it had alienated public opinion both within and outside the State.

Its first mistake was to assume that the potential of agriculture as the bedrock of development had been exhausted, and the State was left with no other option than to give a vigorous push for industrialisation. The share of area actually under cultivation in relation to the total area in West Bengal is 63 per cent against 46 per cent for India as a whole. An area of 14 per cent under forests cannot be touched as it is already far lower than the imperative 33 per cent prescribed. The share of fallow land, unculturable land and pastures is also only one per cent compared to 17.6 per cent in the country.

Since the extent of land currently under non-agricultural uses is already higher (18.5 per cent) in West Bengal than in India (7.7 per cent), not much scope remains for finding additional non-agricultural land. All this means that industrialisation cannot make any headway in that State without diverting a sizeable proportion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes and causing an alarming depletion in unculturable land and pasture.

Warning not heeded

If only the Left Front Government had taken note of the observations contained in a well-written paper titled "Status on Land" prepared by its own Land and Land Reforms Department a year before Singur and Nandigram became burning issues, it would not have been cutting such a sorry figure. For, that paper had clearly warned that the State cannot afford to convert agricultural land to non-agricultural purposes without taking steps to enhance agricultural productivity so as not to endanger the food and nutrition security.

It also advocated release of a significant proportion of cropped area in the State for the diversification of crop production, and, in particular, the production of oilseeds, pulses, fruit, vegetables and flowers and other non-food crops, and the development of agriculture and related activities as a key instrument of employment-generation, income-enhancement and, in general, qualitative improvement in the living standards of the working people of the countryside.

Actually, not only in West Bengal but the country as a whole, there is plenty that can be done by giving a fillip to agro-processing and agri-business without getting hung up on industrialisation as the sure-fire path to economic salvation.

The second omission of the State Government was in not basing its decision on an in-depth analysis of the categories of land available in each district. It did not also make the needed efforts to convince the public that its overall strategy of industrialisation would not be at the cost of the interests of the farmers or food security.

In fact, well before the Tata's entry into Singur, well-wishers of the Front had urged that decisions on setting up industries be taken only after an inventory of vacant land had been compiled and the map specifying land-use patterns in the State was completed. The inventory was submitted to the Assembly only on March 30, but no land-use map is ready as yet.

Instead of viewing the recent happenings through a political prism, the ruling establishment should learn the appropriate lessons and fast.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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