01-17-2007, 08:09 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Left sees red </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Is forced to go slow on SEZs
The circumspection shown by the Left Front Government in West Bengal on the issue of land acquisition in Nandigram, East Midnapore, for the SEZ to be built by Indonesia's Salem Group is welcome, notwithstanding the fact that the decision to exert caution has been forced by the violent agitation by villagers in the district, including the ruling CPI(M)'s own cadre. Six people were killed and several others wounded earlier this month in clashes with the police in which armed mobs burnt down the local gram panchayat office, several houses and police vehicles. If the West Bengal Government has realised that pushing forward with industrialisation - the absence of which has rendered this once prosperous State as one of the most backward industrial economies of the country - does not always pay; indeed, it invites a violent backlash; the virtual uprising by the farmers in the district on the basis of mere rumours that land was being forcibly acquired points also at the emotive content in the issue. Suddenly, it is not just the <b>main Opposition in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress, that is at the forefront of the agitation against the setting up of special economic zones on what is considered prime agricultural land</b>; the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has had to retreat in the face of snowballing protest by villagers to whom the project does not signify adequate compensation for the land they would appear set to lose. A rattled West Bengal leadership is thus embarking on the uncertain mission of "convincing" the farmers of Nandigram about the benefits of the project. Indeed, it may well be asked what had the Left Front Government been doing in the months since the signing of the deal with the Indonesian group? <b>It should be embarrassingly obvious to the apparatchiks in Writers Building that they failed to take the people, whose ostensible benefit they had in mind, into confidence before they signed the multi-crore rupee project calling for the acquisition of 4,000 hectares of farmland. As a result, the Marxist Government's ambitious plans of setting up at least six other major industrial projects, including SEZs, necessitating the acquiring of at least 10,000 hectares, is now in a limbo.</b>
That may be just as well. People cannot be forced to go along with every one of the Government's development projects - without due and proper compensation. Land is a sensitive issue in a State that is among the most densely populated in the country. The people have to be convinced of their stakes in an industrialising society. In that sense the Government of West Bengal has failed to get the fundamentals of land acquisition in an agrarian State right: It did not move with the requisite transparency. If the SEZs in West Bengal look set to be put on the backburner for several months to come, the Marxists have none to blame but themselves.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Is forced to go slow on SEZs
The circumspection shown by the Left Front Government in West Bengal on the issue of land acquisition in Nandigram, East Midnapore, for the SEZ to be built by Indonesia's Salem Group is welcome, notwithstanding the fact that the decision to exert caution has been forced by the violent agitation by villagers in the district, including the ruling CPI(M)'s own cadre. Six people were killed and several others wounded earlier this month in clashes with the police in which armed mobs burnt down the local gram panchayat office, several houses and police vehicles. If the West Bengal Government has realised that pushing forward with industrialisation - the absence of which has rendered this once prosperous State as one of the most backward industrial economies of the country - does not always pay; indeed, it invites a violent backlash; the virtual uprising by the farmers in the district on the basis of mere rumours that land was being forcibly acquired points also at the emotive content in the issue. Suddenly, it is not just the <b>main Opposition in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress, that is at the forefront of the agitation against the setting up of special economic zones on what is considered prime agricultural land</b>; the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has had to retreat in the face of snowballing protest by villagers to whom the project does not signify adequate compensation for the land they would appear set to lose. A rattled West Bengal leadership is thus embarking on the uncertain mission of "convincing" the farmers of Nandigram about the benefits of the project. Indeed, it may well be asked what had the Left Front Government been doing in the months since the signing of the deal with the Indonesian group? <b>It should be embarrassingly obvious to the apparatchiks in Writers Building that they failed to take the people, whose ostensible benefit they had in mind, into confidence before they signed the multi-crore rupee project calling for the acquisition of 4,000 hectares of farmland. As a result, the Marxist Government's ambitious plans of setting up at least six other major industrial projects, including SEZs, necessitating the acquiring of at least 10,000 hectares, is now in a limbo.</b>
That may be just as well. People cannot be forced to go along with every one of the Government's development projects - without due and proper compensation. Land is a sensitive issue in a State that is among the most densely populated in the country. The people have to be convinced of their stakes in an industrialising society. In that sense the Government of West Bengal has failed to get the fundamentals of land acquisition in an agrarian State right: It did not move with the requisite transparency. If the SEZs in West Bengal look set to be put on the backburner for several months to come, the Marxists have none to blame but themselves.
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