Left Front demands adequate compensation for displaced farmers

Kolkata, May 29 (UNI) Left Front Chairman Biman Bose today demanded adequate compensation for the farmers, who might be displaced due to land acquisition for the proposed industries coming up in West Bengal.

'' Land will be needed for industries. It cannot be set up in air, '' Mr Bose said adding adequate compensation package should be prepared by the state government so that an alternative arrangement was in place. He demanded that farmers be paid extra amount for the land.

He also demanded alternative fertile land and adequate compensation for those belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL).

Mr Bose also cautioned that the landowners had changed hands and the farmers were not the owners now, so the government would have to buy land from them. '' We have spoken to the farmers on behalf of our party in this regard, '' he stated.

He vouched for alternative employment scope for the marginal farmers, and said the success achieved in agriculture could not be undermined.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) leader said the state government had drawn up various plans and functions on the completion of the Left Front government's 30 years of rule in the state and requested the governemt to bring out a book on 30 years of Left Front rule.

He informed that Municipal elections would be held in Raiganj of North Dinajpur and Pujali of South 24 Parganas, besides byelections to 12 Municipal wards on July 9.

UNI AKM SP/SJC KLC1626