Mollah laments govt neglect of farming

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State land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah on Friday punctured holes in his own Left Front government’s slogan “agriculture is our foundation and industry is our future.” He said that agriculture alone was the future of West Bengal. He lamented his inability to convince his own party, the CPI(M) and the government

about the supremacy of agriculture in the economy of the state. He also acknowledged his failure to curb the activities of the real estate promoters indicating that his efforts were thwarted by a section of his party. Apprehending that articulation of these home truths may not go down well within the party, he said that he might not contest next Assembly polls.
Mr Mollah sounded pessimistic about the return of the Left Front to power and his own political future. In his statement, he twice referred to “whoever comes to power in future” indicating that he was not sure of Left Front’s return. Later, he even said that the party may not renominate him.
During his reply to the discussion on the land and land reforms department budget in the Assembly, Mr Mollah said, “I failed to bring a bill to prevent the promoters from taking agricultural land for real estate development. The progress in agriculture can lead to development of the state. Whoever comes to power will take decisions on these issues.”
Elaborating on the rationale behind his argument, Mr Mollah said, “West Bengal has great potential in agriculture and an integral development of agriculture is the future of this state. The land is fertile and more importantly we have sufficient water resources. We will have to increase the productivity and the product diversity by providing more infrastructure like irrigation. Besides, we will have to strengthen the agri-business to properly market the products to make agriculture profitable. However, I failed to convince my party and others.”
Mr Mollah also informed the House that out of 1.30 crore rural families in the state, 1.03 crore families were dependent on agriculture. Speaking on the amendment bill, which was passed in the Assembly, on empowering the state government to vest land of the closed factories and tea gardens, Mr Mollah alleged that some people with vested interests were lobbying with the Centre to ensure that the bill does not get the President’s assent.
Regarding land acquisition, he said that no fertile land had been acquired for industries. “However, for the projects of the railways, Kolkata Port Trust and the NHAI, we have been even acquiring fertile agriculture land since these projects are of national interest,” he added.