Bengal ready with land for industry

The land and land reforms department, which worked for two and a half years to create the land bank, itself has 76,000 acres while other departments have got 30,000 acres.

Three departments — higher education, judicial and health and family welfare — could not furnish any information about the idle land that they have.

“Except for health, two other departments do not have much land with them. The three departments would account for roughly 3,000-4,000 acres of land. Had we waited for their replies, the land bank would never have been ready. We have sent the list to the Chief Minister, who, we believe, will announce it after the elections,’’ a senior official of the state government told The Indian Express.

Officials said no large chunk of land was available for setting up heavy industries. “The biggest one is a chunk of 200 acres of land. A very big chunk of land at Shalboni in West Midnapore was given to the Jindals for their steel factory. The state government no longer has a piece of land of that size,’’ the official said.

At her press conference after the cabinet meeting on May 21, 2011, the day she took oath as chief minister, Mamata announced that her government would prepare a land bank that would be offered to industrialists willing to set up their projects in the state. Her government is opposed to forcible acquisition of land.

“Just one or two departments could not file their reports. But in any case, the bank is ready for use for the department of commerce and industries,’’ Amarendra Kumar Singh, land and land reforms commissioner, told The Indian Express.