Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and commerce & industry minister Nirupam Sen - now both in the PB- proved themselves as liars. All through they said only 1 % land was available for industry while Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, former land reform commissioner and architect of Operation Barga waw repeatedly saying that 24% land was available.
Buddhadeb said at Coimbatore that 1% fallow and 23% industrial land available.
The news concerned is here.
Sankar Ray
No option, will use farm land for industries: Buddha by Rajiv P I 3 Apr 08 (http://www.indianexpress.com/story/291723.html)
COIMBATORE, APRIL 2 : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee affirmed on Wednesday that his government will go on using agricultural land for his state's industrialisation.
Addressing the media at the 19th party congress of the CPI(M) here, Bhattacharjee said that West Bengal just did not have an option. "SIXTY-THREE PER CENT OF OUR LAND IS AGRICULTURAL LAND, 1 PER CENT IS FALLOW LAND, 13 PER CENT IS FOREST COVER, AND ONLY 23 PER CENT IS LEFT FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES. SO WHAT DO WE DO? WE CAN'T DO WITH 23 PER CENT, WE MUST MOVE AHEAD," he asserted.
Bhattacharjee's remarks came a day after the party congress officially resolved that Nandigram was both a "political and administrative mistake". It also asked Bengal to exercise abundant caution on its industrial policy — the state was told to ensure safeguards are in place for proper rehabilitation and compensation for those displaced.
Explaining the party stand, officially decided in the meet on the issue of Special Economic Zones, Bhattacharjee said the CPI(M) was going to propose a series of amendments to the Government's SEZ policy.
The Government, he said, would need to come out with a clear policy on which industries should be granted SEZ benefits depending on the level of advanced technology used and export potentials, fix the extent of land to be allocated for specific industrial sectors in SEZs on a need-to basis, and evolve a criterion for the actual land use pattern in SEZs —the party has proposed 50 per cent for actual industrial use, 25 per cent for infrastructure, and the remaining for other purposes.
Bhattacharjee said what the UPA government was doing about SEZs was "madness".
"How many SEZs does the country need? China started with just four SEZs, but here, every state asks for SEZs and the Government gives it. We already have over 400 SEZs in the country." Bengal, he said, already has five SEZs, and some five more are on the anvil. He added that the party was also categoric that no SEZ can be allowed to bypass labour laws and the right to collective bargaining.
In retail, Bhattacharjee said the party's basic philosophy remains that "we don't need foreigners to sell us our vegetables". The CPI(M) wants no MNC retailer, and also wants proper regulations clamped on the big Indian companies in the retail space.
The West Bengal Chief Minister informed that the party's Pol-Org (Political-Organisation) report adopted at the meet has called for immediately launching a "rectification programme to correct wrong trends" which, he added, meant changing lifestyles of comrades, bureaucratic attitudes and misbehaviour. CPI(M) sources, incidentally, confirmed that the Pol-Org report had blasted sections of the party found to be enjoying a bourgeois lifestyle not conforming to party ethos.
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