Hello Tata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has kept for herself several crucial portfolios,including control of the home ministry and land. That is perhaps a hopeful indicator that the new CM realises that the dangerous mix of state over-reaction and backward-looking negationism that has scared industry away from Bengal must end. Another such sign is,perhaps,that among her first acts was to address the knotty problem of land acquisition at Singur,paralysed between 2006 and 2008 by protests that eventually led Tata Motors to shift production of the Nano peoples car to Gujarat.

Banerjee has made her initial steps clear. Her cabinet has taken the decision that 400 acres will be returned to the farmers from whom it was compulsorily purchased. This will not be easy; some farmers will not be able to recover the exact plots they had before,but the government has indicated that any further compensation will be at market rates. There will also remain various legal tangles that will have to be sorted out. It is to be hoped,however,that one of these complications will not be action from the Tata group. Indeed,it is worth highlighting that what Banerjee has in essence said is that,of the 997-acre plot of land,less than half is being returned. On the remaining 600 acres,the Tatas are welcome,she said,to put up a plant. It is to be hoped that the Tatas will seize this opportunity to cash in early on the growth story that West Bengal could well become in the coming years.

If Tata Motors takes this land,it will not be their smallest plant in terms of acreage. It is worth noting,though,that at the time Singur was sanctioned,it would have been their largest. Yet even Telcos historic Jamshedpur location has only 800 acres,and much of it is a sprawling,leafy township. The simple truth is that,in a time when the conversion of land from agricultural to industrial use has become a political hot potato,it is necessary for our manufacturing companies to learn to be as stingy with it as possible. Maximalist demands for land have become politically untenable. In many ways,the Tata group has always looked to the future. They should,too,about land and take Banerjee up on her offer.