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West Bengal puts Dankuni project on hold

Special Correspondent

It will await land procurement panel’s clearance

The project is to be set up on over 4,800 acres of land
Trinamool Congress has expressed opposition to it

KOLKATA: In line with its decision to go ahead with moves to acquire land for industry and infrastructure only with the consent of local elected bodies, the West Bengal government announced here on Tuesday that it would put on hold the proposal to set up a major township at Dankuni in the Hooghly district.

New land procurement committees involving the local panchayats and the people would be set up wherever infrastructure projects like the one at Dankuni were being planned. “Whether or not the government goes ahead with its proposed projects will depend on the views of these committees,” said Ashok Bhattacharya, the State’s Minister for Urban Development. The changes in the political composition of rural bodies in some areas following the panchayat elections last month have necessitated the formation of new land procurement committees.

The Dankuni township project, promoted by the real estate major, DLF Ltd, is to be set up on more than 4,800 acres of land but not before the local land procurement committee gives it its assent.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has demanded that notification for the project be withdrawn. Her party would continue its movement against the acquisition of fertile land for industry and infrastructure as it had done in Nandigram and in Singur, she had earlier reiterated.

“The State government will not acquire land unless the local people are agreeable”, Mr Bhattacharya said.

Only recently the State’s Industries Minister, Nirupam Sen, said in New Delhi that the State government was seeking a “consensus” on the question of acquiring land for industries. Land would not be acquired without the consent of the people, irrespective of the outcome of the polls, he pointed out. Stung by reverses in certain districts in the rural polls the State government has been advised a greater measure of caution by the Left Front Committee while going ahead with its plans for land acquisition for industries and infrastructure – major props in the State’s agenda for development.

One of the reasons contributing to reverses suffered by the Left Front was the failure of the Left parties to convince the people adequately enough of the need for industrialisation and assuring them that land would not be acquired forcibly. Leaders of some Left Front constituents also had come out in the open over their misgivings on the issue.

The central committee of the CPI(M) at its two-day meeting in New Delhi late last month had noted that in some areas of West Bengal the Left Front had suffered in the rural polls because of the fears among the electorate on matters relating to land acquisition. Such apprehensions needed to be allayed, the party leadership had concurred.

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