Criticising land acquisition in Singur, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen said that the Tatas should have purchased the land for the project if they could buy the British steel industry (Corus).
Sen said, “Though I completely approve of the project in Singur, at a time when Tatas were buying the British steel industry, they could have purchased the land in Singur. While acquiring the land if they faced problems in some patches that could have been acquired by the government.” He was speaking at a seminar organized by the West Bengal government on “Which way industrialization in Bengal was headed.”
Merits mention, the land in Singur was acquired by the West Bengal government by invoking the Land Acquisition Act.
Sen said, land acquisition should be the last recourse if people can purchase. “We believe in market economy,” he added.
State finance minister, Asim Dasgupta, who was chairing the seminar pointed out that a Tata group company, which was acquiring land directly faced problems and eventually the government had to intervene.
Sen justified street battles as part of a democractic society, but said that once a pact had been arrived at, it should be respected, otherwise no industrialist would invest in the state.
He said that the atmosphere in Singur had become such that any difference of opinion could have triggered a production shutdown.
Without referring to Singur, economist Pranab Bardhan said that farmers could made stakeholders in the project by giving them equity shares, but the government should insulate them from the volatility of the stock markets.
