West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, may not be in complete agreement with the Centre’s amended Land Acquisition Bill, but she likes the rehabilitation package. So for land losers in Bengal, it will be the best of both policies.
The main bone of contention is the 80:20 ratio proposed in the Bill, which is contrary to the new Bengal stand, whereby 100 per cent of the land is to be purchased by the investors. The Bill, however, states that consent of 80 per cent of people is mandatory except for land acquired for public purpose.
Banerjee may have prevailed upon the government to improve upon the ratio from 70:30 to 80:20, but it’s still not good enough to be implemented in Bengal.
“If 80 per cent of the people give their consent, then why doesn’t the government acquire the land? I don’t agree with the ratio. Also, public purpose is not well defined, they have broadened its scope while we will restrict to natural calamities and national defence. But their rehabilitation package is better than ours,” West Bengal commerce and industry minister, Partha Chatterjee, said.
The compensation indicated by the state government’s two-member committee — comprising former land land reforms commissioner, Debabrata Bandyopadhyay and barrister, Somendra Nath Basu — is much lower than that proposed in the amended Land Bill.
The committee had suggested that the price should not be less than what is indicated in the registration records, whereas the Centre’s bill calls for four times the price in rural areas and two times in urban areas.
“The compensation recommended by the committee is on the lower side. We will incorporate the rehabilitation part in the central Land Acquisition Bill in our Land Policy that will be finalised on September 14,” Chatterjee said.
The industry, which has been skeptical, ever since the state government made its stance on land acquisition public, is now scared that the cost of rehabilitation will make projects unviable. It’s a double whammy for them.
“While there are some investors who are not averse to paying high compensation, zero tolerance on land acquisition will make things very difficult. The Centre’s 80:20 ratio seems fine,” an investor setting up one of the largest projects in Bengal, said.
Others have expressed skepticism over the fact that a self buying model in land does not go hand in hand with the existing laws such as the urban land ceiling act (UCLA), which does not allow ownership above 24 acres.
“The central law says the state is free to draft its own law. We have been in talks with the Bengal government. They have assured us that the amendments will put in place a more progressive law which will allow us to not just buy land but own it without a 14y license,” said M K Jalan, chairman of Kolkata based Keventer Agro.
A 14y waiver on the Land Reforms Act, allows a company to own more than 24 acres. Incidentally, the state government recently vested 270 acres which JSW Steel had bought on its own albeit without a 14y exemption.
Land experts have also raised doubts about the integration of the R&R policy of the central bill within the ambit of the land law which Banerjee is proposing.
“How can the government ensure compliance with R&R when it leaves the industrialist to go out and purchase land on his own”, asked Anup Sinha, professor, economics department, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Sinha further said that in the context the TMC’s current land policy a better R&R package for the farmers would be successful only if the state were to monitor the land buying process.
“It is not feasible that the state set the price and leaves the industry to buy the land. Aberrations will become the norm in such a scenario. Also given the TMC land policy, big greenfield projects will find it difficult to take off,” he explained.
Land has been a contentious issue in Bengal ever since the Nandigram and Singur agitations, which ultimately led to the ouster of the 34 year old CPI(M) rule in the state, simultaneously catapulting Mamata Banerjee to the chief ministerial position.
Since she came to power Banerjee has given teeth to pro-farmer policies, which won her the elections, and put the halt notice on a power project at Katwa and a nuclear plant at Haripur. On September 14 when the state land policy will be finalised it is possible a halt order will be placed on numerous other potential projects as well, feel experts.
