Broken Promises

Three decades after it was first commissioned,Haldias initial promise has waned. It is home to big companies Indian Oil Corporation,Hindustan Unilever,Haldia Petrochemicals,Exide,Mitsubishi and also the graveyard of a greater number of industrial projects.

Besides,there are thousands of individual tales of how land was acquired in the name of industry by the CPM often at a paltry sum and how the quality of rehabilitation has been appalling. A number of factories have either closed down,or have become sick. A large number of units have never seen the light of the day and the land acquired for them is lying vacant.

Take the case of Dibakar Manna 73. He had to forgo his 10 bighas of land at Sutahata at a throwaway price to the Haldia Development Authority,which,in turn,sold it to a Japanese chemical company. Today,Dibakar barely manages to survive. He has a room with tiled roof on about 200 sq feet of land in Ramnagar,the colony of the displaced people who,having lost cultivable lands that was their only source of income,survive mainly as daily labourers at factories. We did not get jobs. I have three daughters and all the three sons-in-law are unemployed. We have been suffering ever since we parted with our land, rues Dibakars wife,Koushalya. Needless to say,this is not an isolated instance.

Theres also huge land that was acquired for industries which never came up. For example,in Durgachowk,about 600 acres of land was acquired for setting up a refinery,but it never materialised and the land is lying vacant. MoUs were signed with Paharpur Fertilisers,Mathur Newsprint,Soros Oil Refinery,Bhushan Steel Limited,Nicco Corporation,Betachem Industries,Birla Industries and R C Bajoria when Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister. Land was acquired,but factories never came up.

We were evicted and had to seek police protection in order to negotiate about the money with Lakshman Seth, says Rajkumar Samanta,who had to shift from Durgachowk to Nibedita Nagar.

CPM MLA Nityananda Bera blames the TMCs militant agitation for forcing factories to shut down or move out of Haldia.

The blame game continues,as Sibnath Sarkar,the working president of Haldia unit of the TMCs trade union,alleges that several industries had closed shop even before the TMC set up base here.

Sarkar asks why did factories such as HIM container,one of the most profitable units,leave Haldia.

Sieuli Saha,the TMC candidate,accuses the CPM of forcibly grabbing land. She says it was the CITU that caused Haldias slow death. CITU offices were set up in front of all factory gates,she alleges,adding that things changed only when Suvendu Adhikari of the TMC became the Tamluk MP and Haldia saw the entry of the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress.

We have a positive attitude towards industry. However,we are against any kind of industrial pollution,generated by units such as a chemical hub. We will not acquire land forcibly or without proper compensation. Our aim for Haldia is to make it a hub of employment generative industries, says Adhikari.