Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s land policy seems to be haunting her. Several rural development programmes and schemes are being affected due to the government’s policy to not acquire land. During her interactions with the officials of Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and Burdwan on Friday and Saturday, Ms Banerjee was informed how the issue of land was increasingly becoming a headache for her to deliver the benefits of the government’s programmes to the rural population.
According to the land policy of the state government, it can acquire land for public purposes but not for any private parties. However, land acquisition for any public purpose is also getting increasingly difficult. During her interactions with the district officials, the chief minister laid great stress on faster implementation of rural electrification programme as her government had fixed a target to provide electricity to each and every household by 2014. The officials, however, informed her that in many places rural electrification programme had got stuck due to non-availability of land.
“We are finding it difficult to acquire land for erecting the electricity poles. Construction of a large number of sub-stations have also been held up for want of land,” the officials informed the chief minister.
They elaborated that due to less number of sub-stations they were not being able to transmit power. Further the quality of the existing power supply was poor and there was huge voltage fluctuation which was affecting industry in a very big way apart from huge damage to the equipment.
The chief minister, however, did not address this issue and became non-committal.
The district officials of Burdwan told the chief minister that 800 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres were running in open air for want of land. The chief minister quipped: “You should request the villagers to donate one-two cottahs of land for this purpose and I am quite optimistic that they will reciprocate you positively.”

***
RAIL MINISTER: CAN’T COMPENSATE ENOUGH FOR LAND
TANYA BAGCHI
Kolkata, Nov. 13

Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi on Sunday admitted that no compensation was enough for loss of land. He, however, pointed out that the railway ministry was providing employment to one member of each family affected by a railway project so that “their life goes on”.
“Land is life. Just as nothing can compensate for the loss of life, similarly, there cannot be enough compensation for loss of land,” Mr Trivedi said at the foundation laying programme for the 19.5 km-long Furfura-Dankuni railway line project in West Bengal.
The railway minister further observed that even employment could not compensate the loss of land. “For the first time, jobs are being given to a member of each of the families who have given up their land for this project. It is a novel idea and a model that can be adopted across the country for industrial projects,” the minister added.
According to the railway minister, the Furfura-Dankuni railway line project will be completed within 18 months which will then enable the people of Furfura Sharif to reach Dankuni in 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee rubbished the reports of hurdles over land prices.