Comes up with a new land use policy to enable the conversion of agriculture land into industrial one within a day Nearly four months after the Tatas pulled out their Nano project from Singur after a protracted battle over land acquisition,Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has asked the government to introduce more liberal land acquisition process to woo capital. At a meeting of cabinet sub-committee on industry headed by Bhattacharjee,it was decided that the conversion of agriculture land would be made within a day in case of any proposal for industry. The meeting was held in the chief ministers chamber,where the CM had summoned the Land and Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen,Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and Urban Development Minister Asok Bhattacharjee were also present. Emerging from the meeting,Sen said in case of land purchased or acquired to set up industries,the character of the land will be changed within a day. We have taken some steps in this regard and no one will have to wait in uncertainty for conversion of land character, Sen said. CPM sources said the party has received reports from various parts of the state that people did not want to give up their land to the government as they were not sure of getting adequate compensation on time. Huge tracts of land were acquired at Haldia and Rajarhat when Jyoti Basu was the chief minister and in many cases,the land owners did not get the price and compensation on time. Even in case of land acquisition for a state-run power project at Bakreswar,those whose land was acquired had to face similar problems. After getting the report,Bhattacharjee and Sen decided that compensation would be given in earlier stage of acquisition. The requiring body would have to pay the price of land in the middle of the land acquisition process,at the time when Section 6 of the Land acquisition Act will be imposed, said Sen. Section 6 indicates announcement of award for the land in the land acquisition process. Apart from land acquisition issue,DLFs pull-out from Dankuni mega city project was also discussed in the meeting. Sources in the CMs secretariat said the government is now planning to involve Indonesia-based Salim group in the project. The government has decided to refund the DLF Rs 270 crore which the company had deposited for purchase of land in Dankuni. Tata Motors may compensate Singur vendorsKolkata: The Tata Motors Limited,which relocated its Nano project from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat,is looking into the possibility of compensating the vendors,many of whom have been adversely affected by the move. Tata Motors is a company of extremely high integrity and will help the vendors as far as possible, said Sandipan Chakrabarti,Managing Director of Tata Ryerson. He added many of the vendor companies had asked for compensation to recover their losses. Tata Ryerson was one of the major vendors for the Nano plant besides others like Caparo Engineering and Bosch Chassis Systems. A vendor who did not want to be named said the vendors had come to Singur at the behest of the Tatas. Now with the relocation,they would naturally feel aggrieved,they said. In the current market condition,it would be difficult for the vendors to absorb the sunk cost, he said. He added there are many companies that have spent up to Rs 90 crore at the Singur plant. I have heard there is a possibility of a compensation. But the modalities have to be worked out, said Udayan Banerjee of Sharda Motors Pvt Limited. A total of 60-odd vendors were to set up their units at Singur for supplying components for Nano.
