Giving away land for industry inevitable: Bengal Minister

Kolkata, July 19 (UNI) West Bengal Government Industry Minister Nirupam Sen today told the state Assembly that the Left Front Government was committed to developing infrastructure in the state and giving away land for this purpose was inevitable.

'' Infrastructure in the state is still inadequate. But it can not be developed without land. There should be no doubt that industry is a better way for development than agriculture,'' he said while replying to the debate on budgetary demand for his department.

He, however, assured the Assembly that the Government had set up a Farmers Commission for increasing agricultural productivity and all possible measures were being taken for economic rehabilitation of marginal farmers.

Describing newspaper reports as ''misleading'', Mr Sen said the Government was not going by the wishes of investors in selecting land and industries were being set up on the basis of priority.

Appealing to the opposition members not to disturb the process of industrialisation, Mr Sen said the Government was striving for a planned development and there should be no such move which would send any wrong signal to investors.

'' We are facing a new situation where states are in competition.

West Bengal had an image problem and we took much pain in overcoming that. Nobody should play any role which can send a wrong messege to industrialists. I appeal to you not to commit such a crime,'' he said.

Referring to the proposed small car project of the Tatas, Mr Sen said the Government had agreed to give them 1,000 acre of land, including 300 acre for setting up of spare part manufacturing units. Efforts would be made to avoid fertile land and residential plots in the process of land acquisition, he said.

As part of their corporate social responsibility, the Tatas had inquired with the Government what service they could deliver for the villagers living close to the proposed factory site, he said.

The Minister said between 1991 and 2005 the state had received a total of Rs 30,000 crore of investment in iron and steel, chemicals and petroleum sectors. An investment of Rs 1040 crore in cement and 15.46 crore in food processing had been received over the past three years.

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