The Hindu Business Line : KPMG-CII study seeks draft land policy for Bengal

Kolkata, Dec. 12 Seeking a draft land policy for West Bengal identifying the areas to be acquired for industry, rationale and modes of compensation, a KPMG-CII study on “Sustainable development in West Bengal” released here on Wednesday has urged the bureaucracy to inculcate an investor-friendly attitude within the lower bureaucracy.

Expressing concern over the State slipping to 10th position in terms of per capita income, and the manufacturing sector contributing only 11 per cent to the net State Domestic Product, the report has urged the Government to form agricultural cooperatives, and frame guidelines for contract/partnership farming in West Bengal, and also appoint a regulator till the market matures.

According to Mr Biswadip Gupta, Chairman, CII (Eastern Region), during the course of the study, opinions of over 50 stakeholders in West Bengal including industrialists, bureaucrats and top CEO/CFOs of some 30 leading companies in the State were sought.

collective effort

The study has called for a shared vision and collective effort of all stakeholders including government, administration, industry and the farming community.

Suggesting that diversion of agricultural land for industrialisation needed consideration, it is pointed out that West Bengal has only 37,574 hectares of land classified as ‘barren and uncultivable’. “This includes around 6000 hectares of degraded mine land of the Ranigunj coal field in Burdwan, 4500 hectares in the Northern hilly areas, and 4700 hectares in the Terai-Teesta flood plain, areas far from demand-supply centres, and with poor connectivity”.

As per the report, the total area of vested non-agricultural land available in the State for industry was even smaller, at only 9073 hectares — only half of that land is in South Bengal.

“Land required for all the proposals pending before West Bengal’s Commerce and Industries Department is 36,437 hectares, and that prompts the question: can industrialisation proceed without acquiring agricultural land?

land acquisition

Although the land required for the industry amounts to about 0.6 per cent of the total cultivated area, acquiring even this quantum of land is proving to be a problem. In the meantime, critics have advocated theories of all shades to argue against land acquisition, from rational (e.g. circle rates underestimate market value), the emotional (land is one’s mother), and the notional (food security would be threatened).

The problem is not so much about availability of land, as the efficiency of its use, it is pointed out.

“Food security is a serious issue for not only West Bengal but also for India as a whole, and addressing it would require making public investments in irrigation, adopting high yielding varieties, correcting market distortions, shrinking the population dependent on agriculture, and changing cropping patterns.”

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