Keen to compete with the rest of the country in establishing more SEZs in the state, the West Bengal government has asked the Centre to reduce the minimum land requirement for multi-product parks from existing 1000 hectares (2471 acres) to 400 hectares (1000 acres) citing problems in land acquisition.Against the backdrop of tension in Nandigram, the state Industries Department has written to the Commerce Ministry that the minimum land requirement for multi-product SEZs be reduced even though the area for IT, Biotechnology and Gems and Jewllery SEZs (10 hectares) and 100 hectares for sector-specific SEZs remain the same according to the Act. Of the 236 approved SEZs, West Bengal has permission to establish six IT and one leather park in the state. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has in-principle approval for 14 SEZs including three multi-product, one bio-tech, one engineering, three IT, two electronics, one automobile and two electronic hardware technology parks. That private companies are keen to invest in West Bengal is clear from the fact that another 27 applications that include one financial SEZ, five multi-product SEZs and six IT parks are pending with the Board of Approvals. The West Bengal government’s request for downscaling the multi-product land requirement comes at a time when the government is mulling over restricting private venture SEZs to 10,000 hectares but imposing no ceiling to parks developed by state Government or Joint Ventures. At a time when land acquisition for SEZs has become a hot political issue, the Rural Development Ministry has circulated a Cabinet note to relevant ministries enunciating the rehabilitation and relief policy for land acquisition. Even though the political parties want the government to come up with a comprehensive land acquisition policy, state governments prefer that land-acquisition be left to them and that they have control over internal procedures related to land use, clearance from urban and environment departments.This was clear at the Board of Approval meeting on September 21 last year which discussed land acquisition in detail. Though the Commerce Ministry suggested that states should not go for large-scale acquisition and there should be better compensation for farmers, state representatives informed that “every state has its own land acquisition policies and all aspects were considered while deciding to acquire land for a particular project.” In fact, the consensus at that point of time was that state should give preference to waste and barren lands for SEZ purposes. “It was agreed that even if acquisition of agricultural land becomes necessary for the purposes of minimum area requirement for the SEZ, then single-crop land should be acquired and double crop land should not exceed 10 per cent of the total park area,” the Board noted. And the Centre agreed to give formal approvals to SEZs only after states were satisfied.
