Malda food-processing unit: A forgotten dream

Sanjay Kumar Saha, an investor who plans to set up a beaten rice mill at the park, said: I took a 1.5-acre plot on lease in January 2007. After clearing all my dues, I began construction at the site and have invested nearly Rs 13 lakh in the project till date. Since 90 per cent of the amount was financed by a bank, I am paying a hefty interest with no sign of beginning production in sight.”

Saha is the only investor who began construction on his plot, the rest remain vacant.

Some of the investors are even contemplating selling the land off. “The price of land has gone up and I am not sure if I want to invest in the unit anymore,” said the proprietor of Binapani Book House at the Malda unit.

Even as the investors suffer, government has not been able to come up with a solution.

“For the last one year, a dispute regarding the size of saleable land at the park is going on, due to which we have not been able to give land deeds to investors,” said Mohanta Chatterjee, state Minister-in-Charge of the Department of Food Processing Industries and Horticulture.

While the Department of Food Processing Industries and Horticulture maintains the saleable land at the park is 30 acres, the Land and Land Revenue Department says it is nearly 26 acres.

Joint secretary of Land and Land Reforms Department Debashish Bandyopadhyay said that he was not aware about the issue.

Covering an area of 42 acres, the Rs 16-crore food-processing unit was founded by chief minister in August 2005. The construction of basic amenities was completed within a year with Rs 3.87-crore grant from the Centre and Rs 5.72 crore from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

The unit, which has 35 fully-serviced plots, includes a cold storage, a warehouse, a parking lot, an effluent treatment plant and a food testing and quality control laboratory. However, besides the laboratory, other facilities are yet to be constructed.