 "West Bengal would never go for forcible land acquisition: Mamata Banerjee")
Banerjee, who skipped the NITI Aayog's Governing Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi to discuss various issues, including the land Bill, said her state was following an alternative land policy as it "cannot wait indefinitely for the Centre to come up with its land acquisition policy".
"We have framed an alternative land policy where direct purchase can be done through negotiations without any forcible acquisition," the chief minister said at the 100th administrative meeting of the Trinamool Congress government here.
More From This Section
Banerjee said that the government had been able to complete various projects through direct land purchase after holding negotiations with the land-owners.
She said that the government had to do this because many projects were getting stalled in the absence of Centre's land acquisition policy which was pending.
"We cannot wait indefinitely for the Centre to come up with its land acquisition policy, so we have started following this model. We have taken the people into confidence while acquiring land," the chief minister said.
Citing instances where the state had been able to give land to big projects, Banerjee said that the Andal greenfield airport was given land for completion as well as NTPC's Katwa project, among others.
Several other projects for bridges and irrigation had started by acquiring land following this route, she said. "It depends on case-to-case basis". The state had also created a land bank, land use policy and land map. "We have taken land from this bank to set up industrial parks," she said.
Referring to Singur, which witnessed vehement opposition by her to forcible acquisition for Tata's Nano project by erstwhile Left Front government, she said, "There was a problem. But for others there had been no such issue". Spelling out another new initiative at the meeting, attended by ministers, bureaucrats, SDOs, BDOs among others, Banerjee said that the state government was contemplating creating a "business corridor" as West Bengal was the gateway to the east.
"In line with the 'Look East Policy' of the Centre, we are intending to create a business corridor as the state is the gateway for Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan," she said.
This corridor would help boost trade, travel and tourism ties with these countries and the estimated cost will be around Rs 2000 crore.
"We will tell the Centre about this plan," she said.
The money would be spent in developing infrastructure at border points like widening of roads, creating approach roads and rail overbridges, she said.
She also said that the state would also provide help in setting up bank branches with the intention to wipe out the lure of the ponzi firms which were duping the people.
She said the model of holding continuous meetings at districts had proved to be very successful.
"Working at the grassroots level has proved to be very effective. We do not want to impose decisions from the top," she said, adding that such meetings were held few and far between during the previous government.
Despite the Centre "stalling" funds under NREGA, she said, West Bengal had emerged number one in this scheme. Attacking the previous government, Banerjee said "no money was spent before my party came to power. Only non-plan expenditure was made".
Like the three-tier panchayati system, she said the government would create a similar DM-SDO-BDO path to improve delivery mechanism.
Blaming the Left Front for state's debt burden, she said that "there is no money with us for doing development work".
"All the money is used to pay up for the debt of the past government," she said, adding that despite such a handicap, the state had achieved success in sectors like health, roads, education, minority and tribal welfare.
The government would create job opportunities for two lakh people. "We have already given government employment to 2.5 lakh," Banerjee said.