Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal has “discovered” a century-old act that it hopes will help it if it wants to return government-acquired land to the original owner.
The not-so-well-known Government Grants Act, 1895, empowers the state to return any piece of land acquired in the past, but which still remains in its possession, to any person or organisation. The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act of 2011 granted the state government the power to reclaim the entire 1,000 acres of Tata Motors’ defunct project land in Singur; of this, 400 acres would be returned to the farmers who had unwillingly parted with their land. But this is a one-off bill that cannot be applied to any other similar case.
“Originally, the state government had planned to bring an amendment to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, to find a way to return land it once acquired to the original owners. However, later we found the Government Grants Act, 1895, which also met our objective and so now the idea to bring the amendment to the Land Acquisition Act has been scrapped,” West Bengal law minister Malay Ghatak said.
The Government Grants Act, 1895, will, however, apply only to those government-acquired lands that it had acquired but not allotted to any individual, company or organisation, and which still remain in its possession. “If the government decides to return the land to the erstwhile owners, it can do so through the provisions of the Government Grants Act,” Mr Ghatak elaborated.
A minister in Ms Banerjee’s Cabinet claimed that with the help of the Government Grants Act, the state government can return 350 acres at Bolpur to the original owners. The state government had acquired the land under the provisions of the Land n Turn to Page 3
Acquisition Act, 1894, to set up an industrial park. However, the project is yet to come up and the entire land has been lying with the West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation for several years.
A senior official who handles land issues in the commerce and industries department, however, expressed scepticism at the efficacy of this act. “In the Land Acquisition Act, it is clearly mentioned that the acquired land can only be used for the specified public purpose or for any other public purpose. If the land cannot be used for a public purpose, then it would have to be auctioned and the proceeds used only for a public purpose,” the official elaborated.