'No further land acquisition without consultation'
Kolkata,
Apr
10:
West
Bengal
Industries
Minister
Nirupam
Sen
today
reiterated
that
the
government
would
not
acquire
any
farm
land
for
industry
without
consulting
and
receiving
approval
from
the
concerned
farmers.
''After
the
recent
unfortunate
incident
at
Nandigram,
we
have
been
trying
to
make
it
clear
to
the
people
time
and
again
that
there
will
be
no
further
acquisition
of
farmland
untill
they
agree
to
it
for
the
sake
of
industrial
growth
in
the
locality,''
Mr
Sen
told
newsmen
after
participating
in
the
Annual
General
Meeting(AGM)
of
the
Confederation
of
Indian
Industry(CII),Eastern
Regional
Council,
here.
But
whether
this
''sudden
change''
in
policy
would
in
anyway
hamper
the
present
growth
of
industry
in
the
state,
Mr
Sen
said,
on
the
contrary,
this
would
ensure
a
sustainable
and
balanced
growth
and
blamed
the
opposition
for
allegedly
spreading
the
canards
against
it.
Earlier
inaugurating
the
AGM,
Mr
Sen
presented
a
clear
picture
about
the
state
government's
new
stand
on
the
issue
of
industrial
growth
and
made
it
clear
that
under
no
circumstances
it
would
be
reverted
back
to
the
''pre-industrialisation''
era
under
the
opposition
rule.
Quoting
from
the
latest
government
figures
indicating
that
the
state
had
achieved
unprecedented
success
in
the
growth
of
agriculture
and
several
agro-based
industries
during
the
last
few
years,
Mr
Sen
said
since
manufacturing
and
service
sectors
had
now
become
the
main
focusssed
areas
of
the
government,they
required
huge
chunks
of
land
for
setting
up
new
plants.
Claiming
that
only
about
ten
per
cent
of
the
total
998
acres
of
land
required
for
the
Tata
Motors
car
plant
at
Singur
was
crop
land,
Mr
Sen
said
the
amount
of
compensation
paid
to
the
affected
farmers
was
among
the
highest
in
the
country.
''It
was
the
wrong
interpretation
of
the
opposition
parties
that
had
created
some
confusion
among
a
small
section
of
farmers,
which
by
now
had
been
totally
erased,''
he
observed.
Regretting
that
some
communication
gap
had
led
to
the
present
situation
at
Nandigram
which
the
government
had
now
realised,
Mr
Sen
said
as
a
result
they
had
now
decided
to
take
it
up
even
at
the
grass
root
level
to
convince
the
public
about
the
importance
of
industrialisation
for
generation
of
huge
employment
opportunities
for
all
and
sundry.
Among
others,
Executive
Director,
West
Bengal
Industrial
Development
Corporation,
Naveen
Kishore
and
the
outgoing
president
of
CII,
B
L
Raina
were
present.
UNI