About a week from now, minister Dinesh Trivedi will be presenting the Railway Budget, the script for which is expected to come from his predecessor and party chief, Mamata Banerjee. Only, he might have to rethink the ‘job-for-land’ policy formulated by her.
Banerjee introduced the policy in 2010 and it was first put to test while laying the track between Furfura Sharif and Dankuni in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. She had unveiled the foundation stone for the project herself and also promised permanent jobs to local people at a public meeting before the state assembly election last year.
The construction of the broad gauge line formally began in January last year. It is, however, stuck on land acquisition, with her job-for-land policy coming in the way. It says a member of each family whose land was acquired is to be given a permanent job, besides compensation at market price. The job is to be in the Rs 5,200-20,200 pay scale, with grade pay of Rs 1,800. This means a land loser will get a Group-C category job, the starting pay a little above Rs 10,000.
When railway authorities initiated the land acquisition process here, they realised this meant permanent jobs to at least 2,300 land losers to lay barely 19 km of track. “We planned to start work from the Dankuni end. Initially, Rs 30 crore has been allocated for the project. But, the problem is, how can you provide jobs to so many people? We will require hardly 800 people to provide service in the area. There is no rationale. It is impossible to implement the policy,” said a railway official, who does not want to be named.
According to the officials, a significant part of the land belongs to people whose individual holdings are very small. “There are cases where the holding is even less than a cottah (720 sq ft). By the policy, they are entitled to get a railway job,” said the official. Around 300 people have got cheques for the land, but the project is otherwise at a halt.
“The minister (Dinesh Trivedi) came here a couple of months back. He assured us of employment within a year. But there has been no work in the last few months,” said Alamgir of Jangipara village in Hooghly district, who is banking on his six-cottah land to get a railway job.
Eastern Railway, the implementing authority, is understood to have conveyed its concern to the higher authorities and awaiting directives on how to proceed.
