CPM welcomes draft land policy,but with caution

Adbur Rezzak Mollah,chief whip of the CPM legislative party,on Thursday welcomed the state governments new land policy but at the same time warned that middlemen could benefit from it.

The draft land policy framed by Debabrata Bandopadhyay has suggested to the government that private entrepreneurs should purchase hundred per cent land for their projects and the government should not be involved in acquiring land for private companies.

Taking part in the debate on the draft policy,Mollah said now industrialists would have to approach middlemen or brokers for purchasing land. In the process,the middlemen would benefit the most in the buying and selling of land,said Mollah.

Though Mollah was critical about the role of the middlemen,he admitted that purchase of land by investors directly from the land owners might be the best option available under the circumstances.

On Thursday,Debabrata Bandopadhyay,a retired bureaucrat,handed over the draft of the new land policy to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

One of the key points of the new land policy is that no industry should be set up on multi-crop land and inside forest areas.

Mollah said this step would protect farmland in the state. He said farmland should be protected for food security.

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He said new industries could be set up in Bankura,Birbhum,Purulia and West Mindapore on barren land or in backward areas. But fertile land in Burdwan and Hooghly should be protected for agriculture,he added.

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