West Bengal CM pitches for new land acquisition law

"We want a new law which will have issues like rehabilitation addressed," he said.

Stating that Singur and Nandigram have taught lessons to the West Bengal government,Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday demanded from the Centre a new legislation in place of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.

“We have learnt a few lessons from Singur and Nandigram.

We must have a new legislation as the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 is out of sync,” Bhattacharjee said.

“We want a new law which will have issues like compensation and rehabilitation addressed,” he said at the opening of a new office of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) in Kolkata.

The chief minister said that the entire nation would be benefited if a new legislation was put in place. Compensation was very important and the Singur package was the best in this regard,he added.

Bhattacharjee said negative developments had not deterred investment flows into the state. “Even after Singur,the state had received a record amount of investment proposals totalling Rs 8,500 crore in 2009.”

He said that 6,500 acres had been acquired post Singur.

Bhattacharjee emphasised that the state would not prosper on the basis of agriculture alone. “We also need industry.”

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The government had laid special emphasis on manufacturing,IT,food processing,small and medium industries,he added.

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