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The recent debate concerning acquisition of agricultural land and properties/structures is now raging violently in West Bengal in general and Kolkata in particular. The Left Front Government has now taken up industrialization as its topmost priority while its developmental agenda is informed by establishment of automobile factories, mini townships, private airports, roads, flyovers and bridges.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is now trying its level best to rope in other Left Front allies to support its land acquisition endeavors. This is an extremely sensitive issue that requires careful handling and political management. A broad-based consensual approach is imperative in this regard. The recent fracas at Singur near Hooghly District is a most topical case in point. Irate peasants assembled to protest against acquisition of their land and homestead. State Government officials had gone to visit the site along with representatives from Tata Motors. But the farmers pledged that they would not had over their land to the administration at any cost. The Opposition in the State has also taken a Janus stand with regard to this issue. While they keep on insisting that they would not stand in the way of economic development they are also urging the State Government to ensure that only barren / fallow land under private ownership should be acquired for the purpose of agriculture.

The Left Front Government’s policy stand in this respect is rather disturbing. It is known worldwide since it first came to power in 1977 as a pro-poor administration that carried out historic land reforms known as Operation Barga to ensure security of tenure and socio-economic justice for the cultivator. It had originally popularized the slogan: Land belongs to the tiller of land. But now the Left Front Government is trying to champion another political rhetoric: Agriculture is our base while industry is our future. It is true that fragmentation of land holdings has led to city-bound migration and reduced profits in agricultural activities. But it is also true that a perspective planning process is yet to be institutionalized by the State Government. For instance: the much talked about alternative development is yet to be noticed in action in West Bengal.

The State Government had earlier committed historic errors in judgment such obstructing introduction of computer literacy and removing English Language education at the primary level. These blunders have handicapped an entire generation that is not only unemployed but also unemployable in the job market. Now the Left Front Government is trying to progress in areas such as information technology, food processing, service sector, heavy industries, agribusiness, knowledge process outsourcing and so on and so forth. But it is to be remembered that such thrust areas require an adequate pool of trained manpower and backup resources to effectively merchandize the end products. The shift from labor-intensive to capital-intensive industry is a historic necessity and vindicates Karl Marx’s scientific formulation that the relations of production are informed by the mode of production that in turn is guided by the forces of production. But what is rather disquieting in the case of West Bengal is the State Government’s apparent inability to institutionalize the best practices of dialogic interactions in order to broad-base its public consultation exercises with regard to acquisition of land and properties.

The New Town project at Rajarhat adjacent to Salt Lake City is an example where compensation packages have not been duly awarded to the peasants whose plots of land were acquired for this township (if media sources are to be believed). This has led to disruption of livelihood of peasants. Owners of land and properties are now reported to be working as domestic helps in the affluent families of Salt Lake City i.e. the uprooted families of Rajarhat have been impoverished and compelled to lead a life of indignity and subservience (according to media reports)

Now the Left Front Government has returned to the power for a record seventh time and is in the process of emulating former Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy’s dream vision of an industrialized West Bengal that can compete with the other Indian States on economic terms. But this vision requires to be seriously informed with the logistics of market, politics and the economy. West Bengal’s land map needs to be studied first to identify stretches of barren / fallow land. But the tragedy is that industrialists always want to set up their plants near bog metropolitan centers like Kolkata while the land in and around Kolkata at Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas and Howrah are all fertile where multiple cropping is carried out twice or even thrice a year.

Now the State Government has taken serious strides to facilitate establishment of the proposed automobile factory by Tata Motors at Singur. Other important projects that would require land acquisition are the Greenfield International Airport at South 24 Parganas and different new road projects in North and South 24 Parganas. The process of land acquisition is an extremely sensitive issue that requires political management of the highest order. But the State Government, in order to hasten through its project of rapid industrialization, is trying occasionally to bypass the usual channels.

Farmers who stand to lose their land and homestead at Singur have tried to build a platform of protest from where they can negotiate with the administration. What is worse is the fact that the media is coming up with conflicting news stories on this issue. Once we get to hear that the CPI(M)’s mass organization Krishak Samiti is on its way to solve this problem by building a consensus while the very next moment we come across another contradictory news item that the Opposition is trying to mobilize the local farmers not to surrender their land to the State Government. A good practice in this regard can be cited from the ongoing Second Vivekananda Bridge Project where owners of private land have voluntarily given their land to the Project Authority in order to receive attractive compensation packages. This bridge project is a major initiative that would significantly improve West Bengal’s rail-road-port-airport connectivity and promote the cause of rapid industrialization in t his process.  

June 3, 2006

Top | Kolkata Diary

The Week of June 4, 2006      
Addressing Students: Open Letter from Member of a Failed Generation by Rajinder Puri
Abolish Minorities Commission by V. Sundaram 
Communist Parties Onslaught on Constitutional Entities by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Genes, Darwin, Contraceptives, Demography and Salafi Terrorism by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Undoing India Through Caste Reservation by Nagesh Padmanaban   
A Dalit Straddles the Financial World an Interview by MH Ahsan
It's Your Problem by Usha Kakkar 
Do We Have Liberty? by TA Ramesh  
Eminent Domain by Dr. Prasenjit Maiti
Parched Throats on the Coasts by VK Joshi 
Sun Power, Woman Power by Fatima Chowdhury 
Democracy in Ladakh : Marginalized Women by Stanzin Dawa 
The Untouchability in Ladakh - An Unethical Practice by Stanzin Dawa
Poisoning the Umbilical Cord by Nabusayi L Wamboka 
A Haven for State-abetted Evangelism on Stilts by V. Sundaram
Leadership and Power : Ethical Explorations a review by Dr. Prema Nandakumar
Gunning Down the Opposition by Donna Demetillo 
Must Knows for Your Child by Garima Gupta
Sibling Harmony Versus Rivalry by Gary Direnfeld 
Who Moved My 'Apple'? by M. Qaiser and P. Mohan Chandran
Decoding Da Vinci's Dissent by Mario D'Penha
In the Name of the Prophet by Shehar Bano Khan 
Puppets for a Cause by Gagandeep Kaur
Fanaa – Aborted Classic Reviewed by MH Ahsan 
Aamir Khan : What should I Apologize for? Interview by MH Ahsan