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Buddhadeb calls for land reforms across India

Special Correspondent

Second International Congress on Kerala Studies begins in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The three-day second International Congress on Kerala Studies got under way here on Friday with West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee calling for countrywide land reforms to make rural development programmes sustainable.

Inaugurating the conference, being organised by the AKG Centre for Research and Studies here, Mr. Bhattacharya said no rural development programme, including the much-touted food-for-work programme, would prove sustainable without land reforms. Land reforms, decentralisation of powers and gender empowerment must go hand in hand if the development process is to prove sustainable. The Bengal Government has been travelling through an alternative path and its success had much to do with land reforms and democratic decentralisation, he said.

Mr. Bhattacharya said his Government was planning to allow foreign private investment in power generation. Some companies in South Africa had already evinced interest in the proposal, which was aimed at stepping up the State's power generation, both for domestic use and export to other parts of the country. Such investment would be allowed only in power generation. Transmission and distribution would continue to be in the Government sector, he said. Mr. Bhattacharya said his Government had also decided to set up a Health City with the objective of making high-end health care available to the needy from within and outside the country. The Left Front Government's sustained efforts over the last two-and-a-half decades had resulted in widespread land reforms, spurt in agricultural production and sharp reduction in poverty levels. But new problems were cropping up in the State, particularly in the area of land ownership. Although land reforms had resulted in 54 lakh families becoming landowners, the fragmentation of families was resulting in the emergence of new class of landless. The Government is conducting a survey to identify the magnitude of the problem, he said.

Presiding over the function, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member V.S. Achuthanandan said development should not be seen from the limited perspective of investment levels and growth percentages. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said any attempt to understand development must also address the question of the family, including the work participation of women and democracy within the family. Twenty-seven eminent persons from different walks of life, who had made significant contributions to the growth of the State's culture and society, were felicitated with citations at the inaugural ceremony.

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