Of land acquisition....

Singur will host an industry, no matter which coalition comes to power in Bengal. What’s more important, this hot spot of Bengal politics has forced CPM to do a rethink on the land acquisition policy — on the lines of Mamata Banerjee. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said he was game for industries buying land directly from farmers, setting aside all arguments that CPM bigwigs had put forward in defence of the state government’s taking the leading role in acquisition. “The government will acquire land only if there is a problem. It will avoid fertile multicrop land. And acquisition has to be based on consensus, not forcible,” the chief minister said, making a U-turn from the government’s stand in 2008 when it ruled out suggestions from Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to leave land procurement to the industry. The CM’s view sounds similar to the UPA government’s draft of the new land acquisition bill. Bhattacharjee announced this as part of the ‘course correction’ for CPM after the disastrous 2009 Lok Sabha polls to try and contain the massive erosion in its rural vote bank that is still a bother for Left Front. “We amended our land acquisition policy after the Singur episode and applied the new principle while procuring land in Kharagpur, Naihati, Durgapur and Ondal. Now the government has 8,100 acres in store for industry. And the process was peaceful,” the CM said. This is exactly what Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has been demanding since Day 1, albeit with a rider. She endorses acquisition only if done for government projects or government-led infrastructure projects, not for private industry. She means no relaxation for private firms, at least for now. They have to buy land from farmers. Whatever differences there are, the CM sent out clear signals that the jagged edges on land acquisition are rounding up in the common melting pot of electoral politics. The CM described the Singur episode as one of the ‘failures’ of his government.