The future of industry in West Bengal will remain dark unless the Trinamool Congress government clears doubts regarding its land policy, Union Minister of State for Urban Development and senior State Congress leader Deepa Dasmunsi said here on Saturday.
“Even after taking initiatives to invest in the State, industrialists are facing problems relating acquisition of land,” she told journalists at the State Congress headquarters, adding that industrialists are hesitating to invest in the State because of the land policy of the government.
Land is available neither for setting up industries nor implementing infrastructure projects, Ms. Dasmunsi said.
The Trinamool Congress government has announced that it won’t acquire land for setting up industries in the State, and industrialists would be provided from the land bank prepared by the government.
Ms. Dasmunsi charged that land was being offered to industrialists at locations where there was no adequate infrastructure.
Referring to the Land Acquisition Bill awaiting clearance in Parliament, she said it is being opposed by the Trinamool Congress and urged the party to take a clear stand on the issue.
On the setting up of an AIIMS-like multi-speciality hospital in her constituency at Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district, she said land had not been acquired for the project despite the farmers being willing.
Asked about the campaign launched by the Trinamool Congress to shift the proposed hospital from Raiganj, Ms. Dasmunsi said such attempts were being made to mislead the people.
Though maintaining that law and order is a State subject, Ms. Dasmunsi said an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the violence at Loba village in Dubrajpur area of Birbhum district was necessary to find out on whose order such a large contingent of police went to the village on November 6.
Stating that there is sufficient evidence that the State’s Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee had held a meeting in July and directed the police to retrieve earth-moving equipment from the village, she said the demand for inquiry was justified.
“There is an attempt to recreate a Nandigram-like situation in Dubrajpur… Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken the same route that the Communist Party of India [Marxist] took in the past,” she said.
State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said the party was contemplating moving court in connection with Loba violence.
