CPM to mull hands-off land policy

Facing criticism from the Opposition as well as its other Left allies and intelligentsia over acquisition for land for industry in West Bengal, the CPI(M) is weighing the option of allowing industrialists to buy land directly from farmers.

The issue is likely to come up at the three-day meetings of the CPI(M) Politburo and the Central Committee commencing from March 31.

However, a section of the Politburo said the proposal was unlikely to be accepted. They said the party's present view that the government could not allow private players to buy land from "vulnerable" farmers was likely to prevail.

Highly placed party sources said the meetings were likely to see West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee face flak for the recent police firing in Nandigram.

"In my decades-long career in the party, I have never supported police firing. In fact, as a Communist, you are taught to oppose police brutality. How can we support such a thing in Nandigram. Buddhadeb has to explain," said a senior CPI(M) leader.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat had recently sought to distance the party from the firing saying that "ordinary people" were killed in this "unfortunate" incident and there was a need for a judicial inquiry of the alleged "police excesses". He had said that there would be no retreat from industrialisation.

The party's Central Committee members are also agitated about the "mishandling" of the Nandigram issue, which threatens to erode the party's base among the peasantry, say CPI(M) sources.

Party leaders, however, say that they will extend full support to the Left Front government's industrialisation drive.